Short Interest
The total number of a company's shares that have been sold short and not yet bought back to close the position.
What it is
Short interest is the count of shares that investors have borrowed and sold, betting the price will fall, that remain open. It is often expressed as a percentage of shares outstanding or of free float, and as 'days to cover' — how many days of average trading volume it would take to buy back all the shorts. It reflects bearish positioning in a stock.
Why it matters
High short interest signals notable skepticism about a stock, but it can cut both ways: if the price rises, shorts may be forced to buy back, fueling a short squeeze that pushes the price higher still. The pitfall is reading short interest as a sure sign of decline — heavily shorted stocks sometimes rally hard precisely because of crowded short positions.
How it's calculated
It is the reported number of shares sold short still open; the short-interest ratio divides that by average daily trading volume to get days to cover.
How Quintarthai uses it
Short and smart-money positioning data are surfaced alongside insider and institutional flow on the company pages; review a name on its deep-analysis page.