When this was written — On 21 October 2026. The figures are as at that date or earlier and have not been updated since.
Lithium producers were among the ASX names where reported short positions increased through the whole September quarter and kept adding in October while the prices fell. PLS Group was 13.08% shorted on 15 October, 422,059,153 of 3,225,946,768 shares, the fifth most shorted stock on the exchange. R1 It touched 13.14% on 8 October, the highest since November 2025, when the position was unwinding from above 17%. R15 On 16 July it was 9.44%. R2 Liontown went from 2.67% to 8.01% over the same dates, three times the shares; Core Lithium from 0.24% to 4.79%, twenty times. R1 R2
Every move here is in percentage points of shares on issue, from ASIC's daily aggregate, which is published four trading days after the position date.
| Stock | 16 Jul | 15 Oct | Move | Shares short | Price 21 Jul to 20 Oct |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLS Group (PLS) | 9.44% | 13.08% | +3.64pp | 304.3m to 422.1m | $4.12 to $2.93, −28.9% |
| Liontown (LTR) | 2.67% | 8.01% | +5.33pp | 84.9m to 255.6m | $1.21 to $0.695, −42.6% |
| Core Lithium (CXO) | 0.24% | 4.79% | +4.55pp | 7.6m to 155.0m | $0.24 to $0.21, −12.5% |
| Elevra Lithium (ELV) | 3.47% | 6.62% | +3.15pp | 6.7m to 12.9m | $7.91 to $3.80, −52.0% |
| Vulcan Energy (VUL) | 6.89% | 8.82% | +1.93pp | 33.0m to 42.2m | $2.62 to $1.135, −56.7% |
The price column understates the fall from the top. All five peaked in the second half of August: PLS closed $5.47 on 24 August and is down 46% since, Liontown $1.325 the same day and down 48%, Core Lithium $0.395 and down 47%, Elevra $9.63 and down 60%. Over the past month alone the screener has PLS down 29.7%, Liontown 31.9%, Elevra 40.6% and Core Lithium 43.2%.
The week the positions jumped
All but Vulcan stepped up on the same day. On 17 September Core Lithium was 0.39% shorted; on 18 September it was 2.09%, 67.6 million shares against 12.7 million the day before. R3 R4 PLS rose 0.49 percentage points that day, Elevra 1.33 and Liontown 0.35. R3 R4 Core Lithium then traded 117.6 million shares on 21 September, about 3.6% of the company, closing $0.375 after a $0.43 high, and its position was 2.70% by 22 September and 3.65% by 29 September. R5 18 September was also the day Artrya's position rose about 2.7 times; whether the dates share a cause is not something the aggregate can say.
Expanding into it
Two of the companies committed to growth in the window. Liontown's board approved the Kathleen Valley Expansion final investment decision on 29 September, 8 when the position was 5.78%; R5 it was 8.01% sixteen days later, +2.23 percentage points. R1 Kalkine reports the expansion is funded from existing cash and operating cash flow, with capital expenditure guidance for the year raised to include it. 13 Director Adrienne Parker bought 20,000 shares at $1.1988 on 4 September, $23,976, before the decision. 14
PLS approved its P2000 final investment decision on 15 October, to lift Pilgangoora production to about 2 million tonnes a year, 6 and on 19 October proposed an offering of up to US$700 million of senior unsecured notes. 7 The shares closed $2.97 on 15 October with 43.8 million traded and $2.93 on 20 October. Kalkine's account is that the stock gave back most of an early rise on the approval, that analysts pointed to infrastructure spending reported separately from the expansion's cost, that brokers trimmed targets, and that Chinese lithium carbonate futures fell further. 11 On Shorted's fundamentals record PLS reported revenue of $1.54 billion and a net profit of $526 million for the year to 30 June and held net cash of $1.34 billion, but those balance-sheet figures do not identify short sellers' motives or rule out concerns about future funding. Commodity prices, expansion costs and hedging are possible explanations; ASIC's report does not distinguish them.
Core Lithium's September quarterly report, lodged 13 October, R9 came as the company produced first concentrate from the restarted Finniss plant; Kalkine reports the earliest shipment is targeted for the December quarter and that the company calls the restart fully funded through to steady-state production. 12 Its position rose from 4.23% on 9 October R16 to 4.79% on 15 October through the report. R1
What moved the price
The common factor is the commodity. Kalkine reports Chinese lithium carbonate futures broke below a key round-number level on 16 October and that the sector was hit during the week by a European Union plan to cap imports of Chinese hybrid vehicles. 10 Shorted holds no lithium price series, so this piece does not quote one; the share prices and the positions are what the data shows.
The positions are not uniformly hard to exit. Days to cover on the 20-day average volume are 13.0 at PLS, 5.7 at Liontown, 4.9 at Elevra and 3.1 at Core Lithium. PLS is the one where a reversal would take weeks of ordinary volume to unwind; the other three turn over their short position inside a trading week.
The materials sector carried 25 of the ASX's 100 most shorted stocks at the end of the September quarter, and the industry view still shows lithium and rare earths as the deepest part of it. A quarter ago the sector's builds were split between lithium and the uranium names; uranium's have since moved both ways, Boss Energy up 3.0 points and Lotus Resources down as its share count doubled, while lithium's have only risen. The PLS page will show whether October's 13.14% was the top.
Disclosure analysis, not a recommendation to buy or sell.