Short Interest Ratio Drift
In plain terms
Stocks where short interest is persistently in the top 20% of their own history underperform by about 7% per year. Short these high-SI names for 1-6 months.
How it works
Stocks in the top quintile of short interest earn -7%/yr on the short side. The signal is the LEVEL of short interest, not its change — persistently high short interest is an informed-bear signal that the marginal long-only investor is overpaying.
Live results
23 times picked on its own · 32 times inside a blend (27 beat the stock) · updated 2026-06-06Data dependencies
- Daily prices
Adjusted-close OHLCV for every US-listed ticker; primary price feed.
- Finra short volume
A data feed this strategy reads, refreshed on its normal schedule.
Expected edge
- Reported return
- -7%/yr on top quintile
- Tested over
- T+1 to T+126d
-7%/yr on top-quintile short-interest names (APR 2005).
Example tickers where this is likely to fire
Illustrative only, the signal fires based on the live data, not a fixed list.
Related families
Watches FINRA's daily short-sale volume z-score. Aggressive new shorting in a falling tape = continuation; extreme highs that revert = squeeze fade.
When the cost to short a stock annualizes above 10% (hard-to-borrow), the stock tends to underperform by roughly 3-4% per month. Short these expensive-to-borrow names for the next 4-12 weeks.
Negative tone shift on the call PLUS rising short-volume in the following days = continued downside over 20 days. Tone confirmed by flow.
Explore Short Interest Ratio Drift on alphactor.ai
See which tickers this family is currently firing on, with live signals and rankings.