Hot Penny Stocks

Highest Short Interest Penny Stocks

Penny stocks under $5 ranked purely by short float percentage — the most heavily shorted names with the most potential squeeze fuel. Filtered to names with at least 20% short interest and a viable technical setup (Coiled or Igniting) so the list excludes outright falling knives.

Data as of 2026-05-19

#	Symbol	Company	Price	Mkt Cap	Short Float	DTC	Readiness	Setup
1	PLCE	Children's Place, Inc.	$3.1900	71.5M	44.2%	10.3	69	Coiled
2	SPWR	SunPower Inc. Common Stock	$1.0200	113.6M	34.5%	5.6	62	Coiled
3	IOVA	Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. Common Stock	$3.4600	1.39B	30.8%	9.2	56	Coiled
4	CRDF	Cardiff Oncology, Inc. Common Stock	$1.7600	114.9M	28.6%	29.0	69	Coiled
5	RZLV	Rezolve AI PLC Ordinary Shares	$2.4300	1.01B	28.4%	3.6	50	Coiled
6	XRX	Xerox Holdings Corporation Common Stock	$2.5700	207.9M	27.8%	3.8	56	Coiled
7	LTRN	Lantern Pharma Inc. Common Stock	$3.0900	25.2M	26.3%	7.4	58	Coiled
8	SANA	Sana Biotechnology, Inc. Common Stock	$3.0600	904.5M	26.0%	13.2	60	Coiled
9	IMRX	Immuneering Corporation Class A Common Stock	$4.8900	338.4M	25.9%	11.6	58	Coiled
10	EVTV	Envirotech Vehicles, Inc. Common Stock	$2.5000	22.0M	25.8%	3.9	64	Coiled
11	HURA	TuHURA Biosciences, Inc. Common Stock	$2.4600	135.4M	25.7%	7.8	69	Coiled
12	GDRX	GoodRx Holdings, Inc. Class A Common Stock	$2.5200	794.8M	25.7%	6.1	61	Coiled
13	VUZI	Vuzix Corporation	$4.1100	200.4M	23.6%	14.2	71	Coiled
14	TDUP	ThredUp Inc. Class A Common Stock	$4.0500	540.5M	23.5%	11.9	58	Coiled
15	GEMI	Gemini Space Station, Inc. Class A Common Stock	$4.9500	536.3M	22.8%	5.7	51	Coiled
16	KULR	KULR Technology Group, Inc.	$3.6300	112.4M	22.2%	7.4	53	Coiled
17	ORGO	Organogenesis Holdings Inc. Class A Common Stock	$2.4300	308.7M	22.0%	14.3	61	Coiled
18	MVIS	Microvision Inc	$0.5648	212.9M	21.9%	17.7	53	Coiled
19	BENF	Beneficient Class A Common Stock	$3.2300	49.3M	21.6%	7.2	54	Coiled
20	ABCL	AbCellera Biologics Inc. Common Shares	$4.0500	1.26B	21.3%	6.0	50	Coiled
21	GETY	Getty Images Holdings, Inc.	$0.9119	365.5M	20.2%	18.2	80	Igniting

Short Float vs. Squeeze Readiness

Short float percentage is the rawest measure of squeeze potential: it's the percent of the public float that's currently sold short. A stock with 35% short float has twice as much latent squeeze fuel as one with 17%, all else being equal. But raw short interest doesn't tell you when the squeeze will fire — that's what our composite readiness score on the main squeeze scan tries to capture.

Use this list when you want to find the most heavily shorted names regardless of timing, and use the readiness-ranked list when you want trade setups that are firing now.

Key columns:

Short Float: percent of the public float held short. Higher = more fuel.
DTC (Days to Cover): at average daily volume, how many days shorts would need to exit. >3 days means shorts can't quietly cover.
Readiness: our composite score blending short pressure, technical setup, and momentum. Useful as a secondary filter.
Setup: phase of the technical setup. Coiled and Igniting are the asymmetric phases.