High-performance lidar sensor company MicroVision (NASDAQ:MVIS) currently has zero available short shares based on Fintel’s sample brokerage. According to Fintel, available short shares of MVIS stock at its anonymous “leading prime brokerage” depleted this morning.
What’s going on with MicroVision lately?
Well, this morning, Fintel — which tracks the number of available short shares at its sample brokerage — reported that MVIS had zero short shares available.
Now, it’s worth disclosing that this doesn’t mean MicroVision currently, or ever, had zero short shares available across all trading platforms and brokerages. Rather, all the short shares had been bought up per Fintel’s sample, which provides some fascinating insight into the market for MVIS short shares.
Investors don’t seem to have chosen to short MVIS today by accident. Currently, the company is in the middle of a confusing rally. Despite bearish investors’ clear interest in shorting the company, MVIS stock is up almost 30%, surpassing the stock’s previous 52-week high of $5.96. Some people are speculating that today’s jump may well be a short squeeze attempt.
Indeed, there isn’t any clear reason for the jump in shares today. However, if you’re long on MicroVision, you may not care. According to Benzinga, MVIS stock is also trending on social media, although it’s again unclear for what reason.
MVIS Stock Soars in Apparent Short Squeeze
MicroVision is a heavily shorted stock, with short shares making up about 27% of the company’s total float. As such, the theory that today’s rally is a short squeeze in disguise makes sense.
If you recall, a short squeeze is essentially a deliberate effort to rapidly raise the share price of a heavily shorted stock, forcing short investors to cover their losses and further inflating a given company’s share price. Short squeezes have grown in popularity after infamous squeezes on the likes of GameStop (NYSE:GME), or even Volkswagen (OTCMKTS:VWAGY) back in 2008.
At the time of this writing, Fintel’s anonymous brokerage still shows zero available short shares. Given the company’s elevated stock price, that may not come as a surprise.
On the date of publication, Shrey Dua did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
