ASX News & Short Selling Sentiment

Wednesday 21 October 2026

Most ShortedDRO16.6%LOT15.5%BOE14.6%ZIP13.4%IPX12.9%PLS12.7%

Featured investigation

The Widow-Maker

Why betting against Australian housing keeps failing — negative gearing, the 1999 CGT switch, the buying power of four banks, and what Japan and China teach about the day it breaks.

4 interactive dashboards27 sources23 June 2026

Illustration: An optical instrument propped upward by a heavy dark wedge.AI-generated illustration

Defence & Industrials

EOS short position more than doubled to 10.15% in a quarter; the price rose 25% in a month

Electro Optic Systems' reported short position rose from 4.73% on 1 July to 10.15% on 30 September, and the share price rose 25% in the month to 5 October; neither series explains the other.

The Shorted Desk — Defence & Industrials7 October 2026Neutral

Consumer & Retail

The Lottery Corporation's short position doubled to 8.63% in eight weeks

ASIC's 30 September report puts 192.0 million TLC shares short, twice the 6 August count, after a results release that called FY26's jackpot drought a roughly one-in-45-year outcome and a federal Act that bans online Keno.

7 October 2026

Energy & Uranium

Boss Energy's short position rebuilt from 8.46% to 13.58% in five weeks

Boss Energy's reported short position fell to 8.46% on 26 August, then climbed to 13.58% by 30 September, five weeks in which the company published a nine-year Honeymoon plan, gained Macquarie as a substantial holder and changed Chair.

7 October 2026

Markets

Short sellers are building against Australia's banks as the US bond rout crosses the Pacific

The US 10-year yield is near 5.2%, its highest since 2007, and Australia's 10-year has overtaken it at 5.4%. In the four weeks to 18 September, short positions rose in the big four banks, Bendigo, Bank of Queensland and nine of ten large REITs.

26 September 2026

Banks & Finance

Zip shorts climb to 11% despite on-market buy-back

Zip Co's share buy-back program has failed to arrest a 22.8% share price slide over three months as short sellers push short interest to 10.96%.

25 September 2026

Mining & Resources

Lotus shorts retreat 8.4 percentage points as directors buy the 58% collapse

Short sellers are aggressively covering positions in Lotus Resources, locking in profits after the uranium developer's share price plunged 57.6% over the last three months.

25 September 2026

Mining & Resources

MI6 shorts hit 9% as a A$250M placement lands on a doubled share price

Short interest in Minerals 260 has surged 5.3 percentage points in 90 days to 9.27% as a A$250 million placement and a A$200 million Franco-Nevada deal dilute a register that doubled in six months.

25 September 2026