Traders typically look for heavily shorted stocks for two main reasons: either to bet on a decline in the company’s value or to profit from a short squeeze.
Here's a look at the top 10 most shorted stocks in the market right now.
- LCID stock is heavily shorted. See the details here.
What Makes A Stock Heavily Shorted?
The primary reason a stock becomes heavily shorted is that a large number of experienced traders and institutional investors — known as short sellers — believe the company is fundamentally overvalued and that its price will fall.
Heavily shorted stocks often reflect a strong, well-researched conviction among professional traders or institutions that the company faces serious risks.
However, traders on the bullish side — often retail traders — view high short interest as a setup for potentially massive, fast gains through a short squeeze.
A short squeeze occurs when a stock’s price rises unexpectedly, forcing short sellers (who are now losing money) to frantically buy shares back to cover their positions. The forced buying creates a sudden spike in demand, which pushes the price even higher, trapping more short sellers in a dangerous feedback loop.
The volatility of a short squeeze can lead to returns that far exceed typical stock movements in a very short time frame.
Top 10 Most Shorted Stocks
Here are the most heavily shorted stocks (with market caps above $2 billion and free floats above 5 million) as of Jan. 16, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
In the table below, stocks are ranked by short interest — the total number of shares sold short and not yet covered, expressed as a percentage of shares available for public trading.
| Company Name & Ticker | Short Interest (%) [Jan. 16, 2026] |
| Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE:CHH) | 56.33% |
| Lucid Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:LCID) | 54.45% |
| Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAR) | 52.38% |
| PureCycle Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCT) | 41.89% |
| Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE:UAA) | 41.22% |
| Revolve Group, Inc. (NYSE:RVLV) | 39.22% |
| Hims & Hers Health, Inc. (NYSE:HIMS) | 36.46% |
| ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBRX) | 36.46% |
| Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS) | 36.39% |
| MARA Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) | 36.21% |
Reminders:
- Highly shorted stocks are battlegrounds where negative fundamentals meet speculative trading.
- Short squeezes can deliver huge, fast gains, but at very high risk and volatility.
- Monitoring the short interest leaderboard can help identify which stocks might be the next short squeeze, but timing such trades remains extremely challenging.
- Always conduct due diligence, as the volatility often reflects deep underlying risks and business uncertainty.
Photo: Shutterstock
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