United Airlines Short Interest Ratio and Short Volume

Short interest is the volume of United Airlines shares that have been sold short but have not yet been covered or closed out. As of March 31st, traders have sold 12,250,000 shares of UAL short.

The short interest ratio, also known as the "days to cover ratio", is calculated by dividing the number of shares of a stock sold short divided by its average trading volume. A short interest ratio ranging between 1 and 4 generally indicates strong positive sentiment about a stock and a lack of short sellers. A short interest ratio of 10 or greater indicates strong pessimism about a stock. United Airlines currently has a short interest ratio of 1.0.

United Airlines saw a drop in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 12,250,000 shares, a drop of 13.6% from the previous total of 14,180,000 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 United Airlines' shares are currently sold short. Here is how the short interest of companies in the industry of "air transportation, scheduled" compare to United Airlines: Southwest Airlines Co. (0.00%), Delta Air Lines, Inc. (1.99%), Ryanair Holdings plc (0.00%), American Airlines Group Inc. (0.00%), China Southern Airlines Company Limited (0.00%), Alaska Air Group, Inc. (0.00%), Azul S.A. (0.00%), Deutsche Lufthansa AG (0.00%), China Eastern Airlines Co. Limited (0.00%), and Air Canada (0.00%).

As of the most recent reporting period, the following stocks had the largest short interest positions: Analog Devices, Inc. ($5.84 billion), Aon plc ($5.47 billion), Charter Communications, Inc. ($5.36 billion), ViacomCBS Inc. ($3.99 billion), Snap Inc. ($3.77 billion), Airbnb, Inc. ($2.90 billion), Peloton Interactive, Inc. ($2.43 billion), Discovery, Inc. ($2.38 billion), The Kroger Co. ($2.28 billion), and Expedia Group, Inc. ($2.18 billion). View all of the most shorted stocks.

Short selling UAL is an investing strategy that aims to generate trading profit from United Airlines as its price is falling. United Airlines' stock is trading down $0.80 today. To short United Airlines 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 United Airlines 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 United Airlines 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 UAL, 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 UAL, twice per month. The most recent reporting period available is March, 31 2021.