Market analysis
Most shorted ASX stocks, October 2026: who is under fire
DroneShield, Boss Energy and Lotus Resources lead the ASX short list at 30 September 2026. Here are the ten most shorted stocks, the four-week builders and coverers, and the positions that would take weeks to unwind.
Ben Ebsworth10 min read
DroneShield starts October as the most shorted company on the ASX, with 15.07% of its shares on issue reported short at 30 September 2026. Behind it sit two uranium stocks, a titanium metals company, a buy-now-pay-later company and a lithium miner on a twelve-week run of increases.
This is the dated October 2026 edition: the top ten, who built and who covered over the four weeks to 30 September, the sector shape, and the positions that would take weeks of ordinary trading to unwind. The framework (what a reported position is, why the denominator is issued capital) is in the July 2026 edition; this piece is the numbers.
Short-position figures are from ASIC's daily aggregate file for the position date 30 September 2026, published four trading days later; four-week changes compare it with the 2 September file, and ETF units are excluded. Prices (the 5 October closes), one-month price changes and days to cover are Shorted's figures.
The market at 28 September
Shorted's week 40 report (report date 28 September) sets the baseline. Its narrative is LLM-generated commentary; its statistics are computed from the ASIC data, and those are the figures used here.
- stocks with a reported short position
- 691
- average short position
- 1.52%
- median 0.41%
- stocks above 5% short
- 68
- stocks above 10% short
- 16
- risers against fallers, week on week
- 173 v 114
The average held at 1.52% week on week while risers outnumbered fallers 173 to 114: short interest spread across more stocks without getting larger in aggregate.
The top ten at 30 September 2026
- DroneShield (DRO)15.07%
- Boss Energy (BOE)13.58%
- Lotus Resources (LOT)13.53%
- Iperionx (IPX)12.89%
- Zip Co (ZIP)12.71%
- PLS Group (PLS)12.63%
- Domino's Pizza Enterprises (DMP)11.63%
- 4DMedical (4DX)11.60%
- Paladin Energy (PDN)11.36%
- WiseTech Global (WTC)10.94%
What moved between the 2 September and 30 September files:
- DRO kept first place as its position eased from 15.71% to 15.07%; the stock fell 7.62% in the week to 28 September. On 30 September the company announced a three-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with the US Joint Interagency Task Force 401, ceiling value US$500 million. The Motley Fool's note that morning had the shares up 8.98% at $1.76 and quoted the company that the ceiling is not guaranteed revenue and no orders are locked in.
- BOE is the largest build inside the ten, 9.91% to 13.58% (+3.67pp), with the price flat at $1.495. Kalkine's 1 October piece describes a closely watched Honeymoon ramp-up, a new feasibility study released with the late-August result, and a September-quarter report due within weeks.
- LOT covered from 15.67% to 13.53% (-2.14pp), second to third. In the July edition it was the 22.81% outlier.
- IPX rose from 10.68% to 12.89% (+2.20pp) as the price fell 19.3% to $2.39.
- ZIP barely moved, 12.51% to 12.71%.
- PLS went from 11.25% to 12.63% (+1.38pp), a twelfth consecutive weekly increase by the week 40 report's count; the price fell 26.9% to $3.72.
- DMP eased from 11.98% to 11.63%, and 4DX from 12.32% to 11.60% as its price rose 13.1%.
- PDN rose from 10.74% to 11.36%. WTC entered the ten, 9.30% to 10.94% (+1.63pp), with the price down 13.2% at $32.73.
- Out: TWE, 11.74% to 10.64%, now thirteenth behind TLX (10.87%) and LYC (10.68%).
Sixteen companies sat at or above 10%; FLT (10.28%), ELD (10.26%) and EOS (10.15%) complete the group.
Four-week builders, 2 to 30 September
Among stocks with a current price on Shorted (stale codes without one are left out), these added the most percentage points over the four weeks.
| Ticker | Company | 30 Sep | 4-week change | Price, month to 5 Oct | Days to cover |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AYA | Artrya | 7.74% | +5.41pp | -22.2% | 6.38 |
| BOE | Boss Energy | 13.58% | +3.67pp | 0.0% | 7.83 |
| CXO | Core Lithium | 3.82% | +3.59pp | -13.2% | 2.5 |
| ABB | Aussie Broadband | 5.70% | +3.57pp | +1.0% | 13.86 |
| MI6 | Minerals 260 | 8.20% | +3.40pp | +4.9% | 12.47 |
| ARU | Arafura Rare Earths | 5.33% | +3.32pp | -8.1% | 9.99 |
| LIN | Lindian Resources | 4.28% | +3.10pp | -34.3% | 3.15 |
| EIQ | EchoIQ | 3.25% | +2.90pp | -56.6% | 2.02 |
| ELV | Elevra Lithium | 6.58% | +2.78pp | -32.4% | 5.83 |
| SXE | Southern Cross Electrical Engineering | 3.11% | +2.76pp | +27.6% | 3.46 |
| SRL | Sunrise Energy Metals | 3.48% | +2.53pp | +33.9% | 5.67 |
| TLC | The Lottery Corporation | 8.63% | +2.40pp | -4.4% | 18.39 |
| GDG | Generation Development Group | 7.30% | +2.30pp | -16.4% | 12.49 |
| IPX | Iperionx | 12.89% | +2.20pp | -19.3% | 22.01 |
| SIQ | Smartgroup | 2.34% | +2.17pp | -3.0% | 4.4 |
| EOS | Electro Optic Systems | 10.15% | +2.12pp | +25.4% | 9.57 |
AUB Group (+2.11pp to 7.24%), Elsight (+2.08pp to 3.01%), SiteMinder (+2.08pp to 8.24%) and Cobram Estate Olives (+2.06pp to 5.28%) complete the twenty; WiseTech (+1.63pp) and PLS (+1.38pp) built more slowly.
One apparent builder is left out. PDI Gold shows +3.96pp on its ordinary line, but on 2 September the ASIC file split the stock across two lines: PDIDB (deferred settlement) held 25,118,120 shares short of 988,015,437 (2.54%), beside 190,760 of 4,940,077,185 (0.004%) on the ordinary line. By 30 September PDIDB held 8,633 shares and the ordinary line 39,186,481 of 988,014,707 (3.97%). Combined, the position grew by about 1.4 percentage points, not four.
Six of the twenty built while the price rose, four of them by more than 10%: SXE (+27.6%), SRL (+33.9%), EOS (+25.4%) and Elsight (+11.9%). Shorted's divergence screen counts 43 stocks where the price rose over the month while the position grew; that count is Shorted-derived, not official.
Four-week coverers
Bapcor is the clearest unwind, and the order of events matters. The price moved first: $0.455 at the 26 August close, $0.645 the next day, $0.875 on 4 September, which is why the September monthly report has it up 85.71% over its month to 24 September while the month to 5 October reads -7.4%. The position moved second: 7.94% on 2 September, 1.95% on 30 September. Kalkine's 1 October piece ties the rally to the late-August result: underlying EBITDA above a lowered guidance range, net bank debt cut sharply, a large statutory loss on mostly non-cash impairments, no final dividend.
The other four covered while the price fell. The file records the level, not the reason.
The sector shape
Uranium. BOE 13.58%, LOT 13.53%, PDN 11.36% and DYL 8.65% are four uranium stocks in the top 25, and the four-week moves split: BOE +3.67pp and PDN +0.62pp against LOT -2.14pp and DYL -1.05pp. Paladin's shares were down around 17% in the week to 16 September with, in the Motley Fool's words, no price-sensitive news from the company to explain it. Kalkine attributes part of the fall to a research house trimming its Langer Heinrich production forecasts.
Lithium. PLS has the longest run the week 40 report records: twelve consecutive weekly increases. CXO (0.23% to 3.82%), LIN (1.18% to 4.28%) and ELV (3.79% to 6.58%) built beside it, all three with the price down between 13.2% and 34.3%. Kalkine's 5 October piece on PLS describes record full-year revenue and output and a resumed dividend, and concludes that "the market has chosen to look through the result toward a softer price outlook".
Defence. DRO at the top and EOS at 10.15% (+2.12pp) are the two defence stocks above 10%. EOS built while its price rose 25.4%: on 25 September the shares rose 7.21% to $11.45 after its R400 remote weapon system was listed on the US Joint Interagency Task Force 401 counter-drone marketplace, a listing the Motley Fool noted "doesn't represent a new contract". EOS tops the squeeze radar at 84.4; that score is Shorted's own (days to cover, short interest, price momentum, crowding), not an official statistic and not a forecast.
The lottery rotation. TLC went from 6.23% to 8.63% (+2.40pp) while JIN went from 7.64% to 2.32% (-5.32pp). TLC's position has doubled in share terms since 5 August, from 95,573,729 shares to 192,019,319, with shares on issue unchanged and 18.4 days of average volume to cover. Kalkine's 24 September piece sets out the backdrop: the federal gambling reform package passed in August prohibits online Keno and bans foreign-matched lotteries from the start of next year, and management has called the lost online Keno earnings a modest drag on EBITDA.
The liquidity trap
Days to cover divides the reported position by average daily volume: the sessions it would take to buy the whole position back. The guide to days to cover has the mechanics; the short squeeze explainer has why a slow exit matters, and why a crowded position is not, by itself, a squeeze.
| Ticker | Company | Short | Days to cover |
|---|---|---|---|
| DMP | Domino's Pizza Enterprises | 11.63% | 30.4 |
| TWE | Treasury Wine Estates | 10.64% | 27.8 |
| LYC | Lynas Rare Earths | 10.68% | 25.9 |
| WTC | WiseTech Global | 10.94% | 22.2 |
| IPX | Iperionx | 12.89% | 22.0 |
| ELD | Elders | 10.26% | 21.8 |
| PDN | Paladin Energy | 11.36% | 19.1 |
| FLT | Flight Centre Travel Group | 10.28% | 17.9 |
| 4DX | 4DMedical | 11.60% | 17.6 |
| PLS | PLS Group | 12.63% | 17.1 |
Domino's and Treasury Wine carry mid-table positions and the slowest exits, close to six weeks of ordinary volume each; DroneShield, at 15.1 days, has the largest position and one of the quicker exits, because it trades heavily. Size and exit speed are different measurements.
What to do with it
The crowded-short breakout strategy takes positions of 5% or more and waits for a close above the prior 40-session high on heavy volume; nothing here qualifies by being crowded alone. Battlegrounds ranks the stocks where position and price pull against each other, and the week 40 report carries the weekly detail.
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Short-position figures are from ASIC's daily aggregate reports, published four trading days after the position date, as at 30 September 2026; a reported position records the size of short interest, not the intentions of those holding it. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.
