The Next GameStop? 25 Stocks With High Short Interest
A recent trading frenzy around heavily shorted stocks has targeted names such as these. But beware: The music could stop at any moment.
GameStop (GME, $40.59) stock has plunged almost 90% from its January trading-frenzy high in the upper $400s. So has its high short interest. But that hasn't stopped Reddit-driven day traders from looking for their next short-squeeze score.
The latest chapter in the GameStop saga entails a congressional committee investigating how shares in a struggling brick-and-mortar video game retailer could quintuple and crash in a matter of days, throwing sand into the gears of Robinhood and other online brokers.
Where the story goes next is anyone's guess. But don't be surprised if the pearl-clutching on Capitol Hill and attendant media attention only heighten interest in stocks with high short interest.
Ever since the bros of r/WallStreetBets (WSB) began a campaign to crush hedge funds shorting GME by setting off a short squeeze (while making hefty paper profits to boot), every "short stock" with high short interest has become chum.
With more than 41% of its shares outstanding sold short, International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF, $139.50) is currently the No. 1 high short interest stock on a major U.S. exchange.
Before anyone gets any ideas, it's sort of hard to imagine the maker of artificial colors, flavors and smells sparking the imagination of the heroic WSB crew. Besides, as an S&P 500 stock with a market value of $35 billion, even a highly coordinated and motivated mob of online buyers might find it hard to move IFF's price.
Other day-trader faves, such as BlackBerry (BB, $10.90), iRobot (IRBT, $125.70) and Vaxart (VXRT, $7.46), have already spiked and crashed, and thus appear spent as short-squeeze candidates.
Below are the 25 stocks with the highest short interest, or percentage of shares outstanding sold short, on the major exchanges, according to the latest data available from YCharts.
Be forewarned that this list is for informational purposes only. Going long on a stock with high short interest simply to get rich off panic-buying by short sellers is exceedingly dangerous – just like shorting stocks with high short interest.
When it comes to playing around with high short interest stocks, the risks greatly outweigh the rewards.
