Methodology

Short Pressure Score

A composite score from 0 to 100 measuring overall short-selling pressure on a stock — not just legacy positions, but active, ongoing shorting. Seven factors contribute up to 135 points, capped at 100:

• Short % of float — up to 35 points. The dominant factor. Each 1% of float sold short adds 0.875 points; 40%+ short interest earns the full 35.
• Latest daily short volume % — up to 15 points. The share of the most recent day's trading volume that was short selling (full points at 50%+).
• 7-day average short volume % — up to 15 points. Smooths daily noise to reward sustained short-selling activity.
• Cost to borrow — up to 15 points. The annualized borrow fee; full points at 100%+ CTB.
• Borrow rate momentum — up to 15 points. Derived from the Borrow Rate Momentum Score described below.
• Short interest change — ±15 points. Uniquely bidirectional: rising short interest adds points, while falling short interest (shorts covering) actively subtracts them. Full effect at ±45% change.
• Days to cover — up to 25 points. Five points per day of average volume needed to cover all short positions, capped at 5 days.

Stocks with less than 3% of float sold short use a reduced formula capped at 15 points, so tickers with negligible short interest cannot rank high on borrow-fee noise alone. Stocks missing float or short interest data score 0.

Interpretation: 70–100 extreme, 50–69 high, 30–49 moderate, 15–29 low, 0–14 minimal.

Squeeze Score

A score from 0 to 100 measuring short squeeze potential. Where the Short Pressure Score captures the breadth of short activity, the Squeeze Score focuses on the conditions that precede squeezes. Six factors sum to a maximum of 100 points:

• Short % of float — up to 30 points. One point per 1% of float sold short, capped at 30%.
• Days to cover — up to 25 points. Five points per day, capped at 5 days. Higher DTC means more sustained buying pressure if a squeeze triggers.
• Cost to borrow — up to 15 points. High borrow fees pressure shorts to close; full points at 100%+ CTB.
• Borrow rate momentum — up to 10 points. Rewards borrow rates that are rising right now.
• Borrow rate persistence — up to 10 points. Rewards borrow rates that have stayed stuck high for weeks. Momentum and persistence are deliberately separate signals.
• Short interest change — up to 10 points. Only positive changes count (full points at +30%); decreasing short interest is not penalized.

Interpretation: 70–100 high squeeze potential, 40–69 moderate, 20–39 low, 0–19 minimal.

Borrow Rate Momentum Score

A score from 0 to 100 measuring how fast the cost to borrow is rising. The key principle: a stock with a 100% borrow rate that has not changed scores 0 — only change matters. Acceleration indicates active pressure: shorts scrambling for shares and supply drying up in real time.

Five components contribute up to 125 points, capped at 100: 6-hour relative change (30 pts), acceleration — whether the rate of change is itself increasing (15 pts), a consistency bonus for sustained rising patterns (10 pts), today's rise from the intraday low (20 pts), and the multi-day weekly trend (50 pts, the primary component).

Every component is weighted by a significance multiplier based on the current borrow rate level — from 0.15x below 2% CTB up to full weight at 30%+ CTB — so cheap-to-borrow stocks cannot score high on tiny absolute moves.

Borrow Rate Persistence Score

A score from 0 to 100 measuring how long the cost to borrow has stayed meaningfully elevated. It is the complement of the momentum score: momentum asks "is CTB rising right now?", persistence asks "has CTB been stuck high for weeks?"

The score combines three ingredients over a 14-day window: the share of days where the average borrow rate stayed at or above 10%, a level multiplier based on the 14-day average rate (zero weight below 5%, full weight above 40%), and a stickiness multiplier that rewards windows where the rate never dipped cheap. Elevated-day counting uses daily averages, so a single minute-long spike cannot fake persistence.

A decay guard caps the score at 25 whenever the current borrow rate has collapsed back below 5%, so yesterday's squeeze cannot light up today's alerts. The score is null until 14 days of history exist for a symbol.

When scores are recalculated

All scores are recalculated together after every major data update:

• FINRA consolidated short interest — published twice monthly
• FINRA Reg SHO daily short sale volume — each trading day
• Interactive Brokers cost-to-borrow snapshots — throughout each trading session
• Company data enrichment (float, shares outstanding, prices)

Persistence is updated first, then the Squeeze Score, then the Short Pressure Score, so each calculation sees fresh inputs.

Limitations

These scores are proprietary estimates built from publicly reported data. FINRA short interest is reported twice monthly with a publication lag, so positions can change between reports. Borrow rates vary between brokers. No score predicts price movement — see our disclaimer.