Days to Cover

Days to Cover is how long it would take short sellers to buy back all the shares they've borrowed and sold, assuming normal daily trading volume. Think of it as a timer on borrowed stock positions. You'll see this metric when researching heavily shorted stocks—companies where many investors are betting the price will fall. It matters because a high Days to Cover number can signal potential for a "short squeeze," where short sellers rush to buy back shares, driving the price up sharply. For example, if a stock has 5 million shares sold short and 500,000 shares trade daily, Days to Cover would be 10 days. It's useful context when evaluating volatile stocks, though it's not a prediction tool.