The 10 Most Shorted ASX Stocks · Week 10, 2024
4 Mar 2024 — 8 Mar 2024
The market barely shifted overall (period average change: -0.01% across 673 stocks), but single-name moves were violent. IDP Education (IEL) jumped to 11.63% short (+1.11%) to become the week’s clearest new target, while SSR Mining (SSR) saw a full unwind from 5.22% to 1.21% (-4.02%). Pilbara Minerals (PLS) stayed the ASX’s most shorted at 20.74% despite a -0.57% trim.
By Shorted AI Research · Published · Sourced from official ASIC short position reports (T+4 delay). Methodology · Not financial advice.
Lithium is still crowded. But the fresh aggression this week landed somewhere else: IDP Education (IEL) had shorts piled in, up +1.11% in a single week to 11.63%, while the average short position across the market went nowhere (-0.01%). That’s not background noise — that’s positioning.
PLS remains the heavyweight at 20.74% short, even after a -0.57% week-on-week pullback. The message isn’t “lithium is fixed”; it’s “the trade is already on”, and some money is banking it. SYR sits second at 16.24% (-0.32%). Same story: a small ease, no change in conviction that the higher-risk end of battery materials stays under pressure. IEL is now third at 11.63% (+1.11%) — the standout because the move is new and decisive. Shorts are paying up for exposure to policy risk around international student flows, where headlines can reprice earnings expectations quickly. DYL (9.81%, -0.08%) barely moved. FLT (9.68%, +0.02%) also barely moved — still heavily shorted, but no fresh push this week. GMD (8.95%, -0.54%) and CXO (7.65%, -0.78%) both saw meaningful trims, consistent with shorts taking some money off the table in miners where the downside has already been well-travelled. LTR (8.48%, +0.51%) went the other way: more shorts added, keeping the lithium complex in the top 10 even as PLS and CXO eased. ACL (7.55%, -1.25%) saw a sharp reduction, while LIC (7.53%, +0.80%) climbed into the frame as a rate-sensitive, housing/regulation-exposed short. Company disclosures for readers who want the primary docs: GMD’s annual report is here (https://gmd.live.irmau.com/pdf/dd4d1488-1cd0-4f66-a7df-34b4d6fc6974/FY2025-Annual-Report.pdf?Platform=ListPage) and FLT’s filings are here (https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/643e6b4601023f66d9745f21/683e6fe95e4cd49e755eb086_2025%20BOS%20Prospectus.pdf).
Key financial metrics from recent company reports for the most shorted stocks.
Stocks with the largest increase in short interest this week.
Stocks with the largest decrease in short interest this week.
IEL (+1.11% to 11.63%) was the week’s cleanest signal. A one-week move of that size is a deliberate build, not a drift. The trade is simple: tighter visa settings and softer student mobility hit placement volumes and testing demand faster than costs can be reset. HLS (+0.98% to 4.53%) also attracted size. In diagnostics, shorts usually live in the gap between “margin recovery story” and “pricing/competition reality”. NEM (+0.90% to 2.78%) rose as well — a reminder that even mega-cap gold exposure can get shorted when equity performance and cost expectations don’t line up neatly. LIC (+0.80% to 7.53%) is the rate-expression this week. When yields don’t fall, long-duration property-adjacent models stay in the firing line. DMP (+0.74% to 4.50%) reads like consumer pressure positioning: food costs, discounting, and the risk that volumes don’t do enough heavy lifting. Then the outlier: SSR collapsed from 5.22% to 1.21% (-4.02%). That’s not trimming — that’s an unwind. ACL (-1.25% to 7.55%) and KGN (-1.13% to 0.78%) also saw shorts cut, while TLG (-0.90% to 1.59%) and MGH (-0.81% to 0.52%) looked like straightforward de-risking in smaller names.
Materials still dominates the crowded end of the list — PLS, SYR, LTR and CXO keep lithium front and centre — but the marginal short dollar shifted this week. You can see it in the tape: trims across parts of resources (PLS -0.57%, GMD -0.54%, CXO -0.78%) while policy- and rate-sensitive shorts got fed (IEL +1.11%, LIC +0.80%). Healthcare was split down the middle: HLS drew new shorts (+0.98%) while ACL saw covering (-1.25%), a sign this isn’t a blunt “short the sector” call — it’s stock-by-stock. Macro only matters here in one way: rates and regulation are back as tradable catalysts. Lithium remains crowded, but the week’s urgency moved to businesses where a single government decision can change the earnings path overnight.
Watch IEL next week: if short interest keeps building from 11.63%, it confirms this is becoming the market’s preferred policy-risk short. Second, watch whether the lithium complex keeps seeing covers (PLS/CXO) — if that covering stops while positioning stays high, the next sharp move in the commodity will matter more than the weekly short data.
Pilbara Minerals (PLS) is the most shorted at 20.74% (week-on-week change: -0.57%).
IDP Education (IEL): 10.51% to 11.63% (change: +1.11%).
SSR Mining (SSR): 5.22% to 1.21% (change: -4.02%).
Yes. PLS is 20.74% short, SYR is 16.24%, LTR is 8.48% and CXO is 7.65%.
Neither in aggregate: the period average change was -0.01% across 673 stocks.
Track the live rankings on the most shorted ASX stocks page, watch short squeeze candidates, or see market-wide totals in the ASX short selling statistics.
Data sourced from ASIC short position reports (T+4 delayed). This report is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Short selling data may not reflect real-time market conditions.
