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.
Our screener flagged 25 highest short interest penny stocks in the current session, ranked by ranked by short float percentage with viable technical setup. Leading the list is Prime Medicine, Inc. Common Stock (PRME) with 46.6% short float, 11.3 days-to-cover, readiness score of 68, in the “Coiled” phase. Also worth attention: Inhibikase Therapeutics, Inc. Common Stock (IKT). The complete ranked list is below.
| # | Symbol | Company | Price | Mkt Cap | Short Float | DTC | Readiness | Setup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PRME | Prime Medicine, Inc. Common Stock | $3.8700 | 666.5M | 46.6% | 11.3 | 68 | Coiled |
| 2 | IKT | Inhibikase Therapeutics, Inc. Common Stock | $1.9900 | 268.0M | 45.0% | 34.4 | 70 | Coiled |
| 3 | RXRX | Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Class A Common Stock | $3.8000 | 1.95B | 44.9% | 8.4 | 60 | Coiled |
| 4 | ALT | Altimmune, Inc. Common Stock | $3.1600 | 591.2M | 40.2% | 14.6 | 66 | Igniting |
| 5 | SRFM | Surf Air Mobility Inc. | $1.0400 | 128.8M | 37.2% | 3.5 | 70 | Coiled |
| 6 | CMPX | Compass Therapeutics, Inc. Common Stock | $2.2700 | 394.4M | 33.6% | 9.5 | 69 | Igniting |
| 7 | RZLV | Rezolve AI PLC Ordinary Shares | $2.8400 | 1.26B | 32.2% | 3.1 | 67 | Coiled |
| 8 | HURA | TuHURA Biosciences, Inc. Common Stock | $2.4400 | 149.0M | 32.0% | 16.6 | 77 | Igniting |
| 9 | INDI | indie Semiconductor, Inc. Class A Common Stock | $4.3300 | 948.7M | 30.6% | 12.1 | 76 | Igniting |
| 10 | CCCC | C4 Therapeutics, Inc. | $4.3000 | 516.3M | 29.6% | 9.5 | 67 | Coiled |
| 11 | ALLO | Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. Common Stock | $2.0800 | 717.9M | 28.3% | 6.2 | 58 | Coiled |
| 12 | FLWS | 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Inc | $3.8500 | 223.1M | 27.8% | 22.8 | 68 | Coiled |
| 13 | IOVA | Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. Common Stock | $4.3100 | 1.86B | 27.0% | 7.9 | 65 | Coiled |
| 14 | VSTM | Verastem, Inc. | $4.5000 | 335.7M | 26.6% | 8.9 | 69 | Coiled |
| 15 | GOSS | Gossamer Bio, Inc. Common Stock | $0.1732 | 80.5M | 26.3% | 3.4 | 60 | Coiled |
| 16 | RCKT | Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Common Stock | $3.8400 | 373.4M | 26.1% | 8.4 | 70 | Coiled |
| 17 | SANA | Sana Biotechnology, Inc. Common Stock | $4.0100 | 971.2M | 25.8% | 11.1 | 75 | Coiled |
| 18 | DFDV | DeFi Development Corp. Common Stock | $3.3000 | 88.5M | 25.2% | 5.1 | 65 | Coiled |
| 19 | CRDF | Cardiff Oncology, Inc. Common Stock | $1.2700 | 88.9M | 25.1% | 8.0 | 51 | Coiled |
| 20 | CABA | Cabaletta Bio, Inc. Common Stock | $3.1900 | 507.1M | 24.9% | 7.5 | 61 | Coiled |
| 21 | LDI | loanDepot, Inc. | $1.2300 | 678.0M | 23.4% | 9.9 | 60 | Coiled |
| 22 | PACB | Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. | $1.6800 | 521.8M | 23.3% | 10.2 | 57 | Coiled |
| 23 | GRCE | Grace Therapeutics, Inc. Common Stock | $2.3700 | 36.9M | 22.9% | 7.0 | 66 | Coiled |
| 24 | OGEN | Oragenics Inc. | $0.5850 | 2.6M | 22.8% | 13.0 | 59 | Coiled |
| 25 | WOOF | Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. Class A Common Stock | $2.6200 | 776.7M | 22.7% | 5.8 | 56 | Coiled |
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:
See also: full short squeeze list, nano-cap squeeze candidates, top bullish penny stocks.
Short Float % is the percent of a company's free-tradeable float that's currently sold short. Higher short float means more shares that must eventually be bought back — more potential squeeze fuel. Above 20% is elevated; above 30% is unusually high. The short interest is reported by FINRA and updated bi-monthly.
Learn more about Short Float & Short Interest →
Days to Cover (DTC) divides the total short interest by the average daily trading volume — an estimate of how many normal trading days shorts would need to exit their positions. DTC above 3 means shorts can't quietly cover on average volume; DTC above 7 means a forced unwind has to push price meaningfully higher to find liquidity.
Learn more about Days to Cover (DTC) →
TTM Squeeze identifies low-volatility periods by detecting when Bollinger Bands contract inside Keltner Channels. The squeeze itself doesn't predict direction — only that volatility expansion is coming — but the accompanying momentum histogram indicates the likely direction of the eventual release. Combine a positive squeeze with positive momentum for high-conviction bullish setups.