short interest

Short Interest

The total number of shares of a security that have been sold short by customers and securities firms.

Notes:

Short interest is typically expressed as a percentage. For example, 3% short interest means that 3% of the outstanding shares are held short.

See also: Bear, Days to Cover, Short Interest Ratio, Short Interest Theory, Selling Short, Short Squeeze

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Short interest

Total number of shares of a security that investors have sold short and that have not been repurchased to close out the short position. Usually, investors sell short to profit from price declines. As a result, the short interest is often an indicator of the amount of pessimism in the market about a particular security, although there are other reasons to short that are not related to pessimism. For example, hedging strategies for mergers and acquisition as well as derivative positions may involve short sales.

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short interest

The number of shares of a particular stock that have been sold but have not yet been repurchased. Many analysts consider a large short position in a given stock bullish, because it represents future demand for the security as purchases are made to replace borrowed certificates. See also cushion theory.