First Merchants Short Interest Ratio and Short Volume

Short interest is the volume of First Merchants shares that have been sold short but have not yet been closed out or covered. As of April 15th, traders have sold 724,100 shares of FRME short.

First Merchants saw a decrease in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 724,100 shares, a decrease of 12.3% from the previous total of 826,000 shares. Changes in short volume can be used to identify positive and negative investor sentiment. Investors that short sell a stock are betting that its price will decline in the future. An increase in short sale volume suggests bearish (negative) sentiment among investors. A decrease on short sale volume suggests bullish (positive) sentiment.

0.00% of First Merchants' shares are currently sold short. Here is how the short interest of companies in the sub-industry of "regional banks" compare to First Merchants: The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (1.38%), Truist Financial Co. (0.77%), First Republic Bank (0.00%), SVB Financial Group (0.00%), Fifth Third Bancorp (0.99%), KeyCorp (1.36%), Regions Financial Co. (1.99%), M&T Bank Co. (3.13%), Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (4.29%), and Signature Bank (0.00%).

As of the most recent reporting period, the following stocks had the largest short interest positions: Analog Devices, Inc. ($5.85 billion), Aon plc ($5.61 billion), Charter Communications, Inc. ($5.44 billion), Snap Inc. ($3.49 billion), Airbnb, Inc. ($3.35 billion), Peloton Interactive, Inc. ($2.53 billion), ViacomCBS Inc. ($2.48 billion), Expedia Group, Inc. ($2.39 billion), The Kroger Co. ($2.26 billion), and Nuance Communications, Inc. ($2.18 billion). View all of the most shorted stocks.

Short selling FRME is an investing strategy that aims to generate trading profit from First Merchants as its price is falling. First Merchants' stock is trading down $1.03 today. To short First Merchants stock, an investor borrows shares, sells them and buys the shares back on the public market later to return it to the lender. Short sellers are betting that First Merchants will decline in price. If the stock does drop after selling, the short seller buys it back at a lower price and returns it to the lender. The difference between the sell price and the buy price is the trader's profit.

A short squeeze for First Merchants occurs when it has a large amount of short interest and its stock increases in price. This forces short sellers to cover their short interest positions by buying actual shares of FRME, which in turn drives the price of the stock up even further.

Short interest is typically published by a stock exchange once per month. However, NASDAQ publishes a report for U.S. stocks, including FRME, twice per month. The most recent reporting period available is April, 15 2021.