The Next GameStop? 15 Stocks With High Short Interest
Stocks with high short interest are back in focus. But beware: the music could stop at any moment.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Delivered daily
Kiplinger Today
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more delivered daily. Smart money moves start here.
Sent five days a week
Kiplinger A Step Ahead
Get practical help to make better financial decisions in your everyday life, from spending to savings on top deals.
Delivered daily
Kiplinger Closing Bell
Get today's biggest financial and investing headlines delivered to your inbox every day the U.S. stock market is open.
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Adviser Intel
Financial pros across the country share best practices and fresh tactics to preserve and grow your wealth.
Delivered weekly
Kiplinger Tax Tips
Trim your federal and state tax bills with practical tax-planning and tax-cutting strategies.
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Retirement Tips
Your twice-a-week guide to planning and enjoying a financially secure and richly rewarding retirement
Sent bimonthly.
Kiplinger Adviser Angle
Insights for advisers, wealth managers and other financial professionals.
Sent twice a week
Kiplinger Investing Weekly
Your twice-a-week roundup of promising stocks, funds, companies and industries you should consider, ones you should avoid, and why.
Sent weekly for six weeks
Kiplinger Invest for Retirement
Your step-by-step six-part series on how to invest for retirement, from devising a successful strategy to exactly which investments to choose.
The meme stock trading frenzy has suddenly sprung back to life, with shares in GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) blasting higher thanks to … well, let's call it speculative enthusiasm on social media.
GameStop rose by nearly three-quarters in a single session after one of the biggest boosters of the first meme-stock frenzy returned to the internet trenches following a multi-year absence. Apparently, a cryptic post on X by Keith Gill, aka "Roaring Kitty," was all it took to once again set off squeezes in some heavily shorted names.
Meme stocks tend to prompt consternation and confusion among normie market participants, but then that's just part of the fun. While it's technically true that meme stocks offer the remote possibility of earning penny-stock-like returns, they mostly seem to function as a source of nihilistic belly laughs for a select community of day traders.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
Either way, it appears the retail raiding hordes are back. They are piling into stocks with high short interest – in other words, companies where many shares are being used to bet against the stock – with the intention of setting off a short squeeze.
A quick primer: hedge funds and other market participants can bet against a stock by "shorting" it. But those bears sometimes get it wrong, and when they do, it can trigger an effect called a "short squeeze."
Stocks with high short interest
You can learn more about how short squeezes work in our explainer, but in brief, it's a phenomenon that occurs when buying pressure in a stock forces shorts to unwind their negative bets – which they can do only by purchasing the stock – fueling a virtuous cycle that sends shares aggressively higher.
To get a sense of where the next short squeeze candidate might come from, we've put together a table of the 15 stocks with the highest short interest by shares outstanding in the broad Russell 3000 Index, according to the latest data available from YCharts.
But first, a caveat: going long on a stock with high short interest thinking you're going to get rich off panic-buying by short sellers is an exceedingly dangerous idea. It's at least as risky as shorting stocks with high short interest in the first place.
When it comes to playing around with high short interest stocks, unless you are uncommonly lucky, let's just say the risks greatly outweigh the rewards.
| Company | Ticker | % of shares outstanding sold short |
|---|---|---|
| Beyond Meat | BYND | 39.1 |
| Biomea Fusion | BMEA | 38.9 |
| Arbor Realty Trust | ABR | 38.5 |
| Cutera | CUTR | 37.6 |
| Medical Properties Trust | MPW | 37.0 |
| Kohl's | KSS | 32.8 |
| Sunnova Energy | NOVA | 32.3 |
| Cassava Sciences | SAVA | 32.1 |
| Novavax | NVAX | 32.0 |
| Altimmune | ALT | 31.5 |
| EVgo | EVGO | 30.2 |
| B. Riley Financial | RILY | 29.9 |
| Trupanion | TRUP | 29.5 |
| iRobot | IRBT | 29.3 |
| Medifast | MED | 28.5 |
Related content
-
Dow Adds 1,206 Points to Top 50,000: Stock Market TodayThe S&P 500 and Nasdaq also had strong finishes to a volatile week, with beaten-down tech stocks outperforming.
-
Ask the Tax Editor: Federal Income Tax DeductionsAsk the Editor In this week's Ask the Editor Q&A, Joy Taylor answers questions on federal income tax deductions
-
States With No-Fault Car Insurance Laws (and How No-Fault Car Insurance Works)A breakdown of the confusing rules around no-fault car insurance in every state where it exists.
-
Dow Adds 1,206 Points to Top 50,000: Stock Market Today
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also had strong finishes to a volatile week, with beaten-down tech stocks outperforming.
-
The Best Precious Metals ETFs to Buy in 2026Precious metals ETFs provide a hedge against monetary debasement and exposure to industrial-related tailwinds from emerging markets.
-
For the 2% Club, the Guardrails Approach and the 4% Rule Do Not Work: Here's What Works InsteadFor retirees with a pension, traditional withdrawal rules could be too restrictive. You need a tailored income plan that is much more flexible and realistic.
-
Retiring Next Year? Now Is the Time to Start Designing What Your Retirement Will Look LikeThis is when you should be shifting your focus from growing your portfolio to designing an income and tax strategy that aligns your resources with your purpose.
-
I'm a Financial Planner: This Layered Approach for Your Retirement Money Can Help Lower Your StressTo be confident about retirement, consider building a safety net by dividing assets into distinct layers and establishing a regular review process. Here's how.
-
Stocks Sink With Alphabet, Bitcoin: Stock Market TodayA dismal round of jobs data did little to lift sentiment on Thursday.
-
The 4 Estate Planning Documents Every High-Net-Worth Family Needs (Not Just a Will)The key to successful estate planning for HNW families isn't just drafting these four documents, but ensuring they're current and immediately accessible.
-
Love and Legacy: What Couples Rarely Talk About (But Should)Couples who talk openly about finances, including estate planning, are more likely to head into retirement joyfully. How can you get the conversation going?
