Short Interest Short interest is the total number of shares of a particular stock that have been sold short by investors but have not yet been covered or closed out. This can be expressed as a number or as a percentage.
When expressed as a percentage, short interest is the number of shorted shares divided by the number of shares outstanding. For example, a stock with 1.5 million shares sold short and 10 million shares outstanding has a short interest of 15% (1.5 million/10 million = 15%).