Short sellers cut their GameStop position by almost a third in the first half of September. FINRA's short interest file for the September 15 settlement date puts GME at 39,069,126 shares sold short, down 17,920,900 shares, or 31.45%, from August 31. That's the fewest since March 2025 and the steepest percentage drop since May 2024.
From the data
FINRA Short Interest & Days to Cover
Days to cover more than halves
Days to cover is the short position divided by average daily volume: how many days of normal trading it would take to buy back every share sold short. For GME it fell from 9.72 to 4.29. Both parts moved. The short position shrank, and average daily volume rose to 9,105,968 shares from 5,864,237.
Six months of GME short interest
From March 31 to September 15 the position fell by 23,754,008 shares. It wasn't a straight line. Of the eleven changes since March 31, eight were declines, and the three increases came on May 29 (1.72%), August 14 (0.56%) and August 31 (5.47%). September 15's drop is the largest of the eleven. Days to cover ranged from 4.16 on May 15 to 17.06 on July 31, so 4.29 sits near the bottom of that range.
| Settlement date | Short quantity | Avg daily volume | Days to cover | Change vs prior file |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | 62,823,134 | 6,066,043 | 10.36 | -2.19% |
| 2026-04-15 | 61,907,606 | 6,610,420 | 9.37 | -1.46% |
| 2026-04-30 | 59,374,474 | 7,005,031 | 8.48 | -4.09% |
| 2026-05-15 | 57,937,281 | 13,910,930 | 4.16 | -2.42% |
| 2026-05-29 | 58,930,916 | 4,914,100 | 11.99 | 1.72% |
| 2026-06-15 | 57,054,439 | 6,841,859 | 8.34 | -3.18% |
| 2026-06-30 | 55,856,110 | 5,196,127 | 10.75 | -2.10% |
| 2026-07-15 | 55,426,276 | 3,433,961 | 16.14 | -0.77% |
| 2026-07-31 | 53,736,062 | 3,150,012 | 17.06 | -3.05% |
| 2026-08-14 | 54,036,583 | 10,171,317 | 5.31 | 0.56% |
| 2026-08-31 | 56,990,026 | 5,864,237 | 9.72 | 5.47% |
| 2026-09-15 | 39,069,126 | 9,105,968 | 4.29 | -31.45% |
Where days to cover runs long
The file covers 22,595 symbols, and GameStop's 4.29 days is short next to some foreign shares that trade over the counter in the U.S. AMXOF has 151,931,827 shares sold short against average volume of 1,104,524, or 137.55 days to cover. IVPAF sits at 132.95 days and TRMLF at 95.87. Their U.S. volume is a small slice of the trading on their home exchanges, which stretches the ratio.
ETF jumps say little
Some of the file's big percentage jumps are in exchange-traded funds: FLTR rose 418.55% to 3,341,471 shares, IDEV 416.91% to 2,812,162, UUP 414.90% to 7,456,289, DIHP 413.42% to 1,354,645 and IXUS 367.75% to 1,153,766. Each started from fewer than 1.5 million shares. Market makers often sell ETF shares short before creating new ones, so jumps like these aren't evidence of bets against the funds. IXUS shows 1.00 days to cover, the figure FINRA prints when the short position is smaller than one day's average volume.
FINRA publishes short interest twice a month. The file carries no prices, borrow costs or share availability, so it can't say what a short position is worth or what it costs to hold. GME's short interest history is on its stock page, and every symbol is on the short interest page and in the short interest API.
Primary Sources & Disclosures
This article was written with AI tools. It's information, not investment, legal or tax advice. Editorial policy
Written by
XOOMAR
Data desk
XOOMAR publishes free market data from primary sources, with an open API. When something we publish is wrong, it's corrected in place.
