The 10 Most Shorted ASX Stocks · Week 2, 2025
6 Jan 2025 — 10 Jan 2025
The cleanest signal this week was The Star (SGR): short interest jumped from 7.20% to 8.94% (+1.74%). Uranium stayed a crowded trade with Boss Energy (BOE) up to 18.27% (+0.67%) while Paladin (PDN) held at 16.00% and Deep Yellow (DYL) lifted to 10.91% (+0.31%). Meanwhile, broad hedges came off hard: IOZ collapsed from 1.10% to 0.06% (-1.04%).
By Shorted AI Research · Published · Sourced from official ASIC short position reports (T+4 delay). Methodology · Not financial advice.
SGR didn’t drift higher. It got hit. Shorts jumped +1.74% in a week to 8.94%, the kind of move that reads like positioning for more pain in a stock where the risk list is already ugly: regulation, consumer spend, and competition.
Start with the table-top oddity: AUSGOV Treasury Bond TB 3.50% 12-34 6M (GSBW34) sits at 132.54% short (flat). That’s a plumbing line item for institutions, not an equity conviction trade. Strip that out and the real leaderboard is familiar: uranium, lithium, and a couple of ASX battlegrounds. BOE is the most shorted operating company at 18.27% (+0.67%). For a $660m name, that’s a heavy lean against the ramp-up story. The long uranium pitch is structural demand; the short pitch is execution risk and timing. BOE’s own materials show what the market is testing: the Honeymoon ramp and the path to steady-state production (http://www.bossenergy.com/images/media/2973720.pdf and http://www.bossenergy.com/images/documents/Dec24-Quarterly-Results-Presentation.pdf). PDN sits at 16.00% (-0.00%). The lack of covering is the point. Shorts are staying put even with the company’s expanded footprint post-Fission acquisition, which keeps integration and delivery risk front and centre (PDN annual report: https://www.paladinenergy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Paladin-2025AnnualReport-Full-Web.pdf). PLS remains a magnet at 13.69% despite a meaningful weekly cover (-0.57%). Lithium is still the easiest macro-to-micro short: pricing pressure flows straight into earnings expectations. PLS’s latest quarterly advisory is where the market will be hunting for realised pricing and cost signals (https://1pls.irmau.com/site/pdf/3bba2523-52c7-4c38-bc03-b945945d9698/December-2025-quarterly-activities-report-advisory.pdf?Platform=ListPage). DMP (13.12%, +0.71%) is the consumer pressure valve. When shorts add that much in a week, they’re leaning into the margin-and-volume debate in a competitive takeaway market where food costs and discounting do the damage. MP1 (10.64%, +0.50%) stays in the crosshairs as a growth name where expectations are high and patience is thin. The next obvious focal point is its H1 FY25 results pack dated 20 Feb 2025 (https://www.megaport.com/pdf/MP1_H1_FY25_Half_Year_Results_Investor_Presentation.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.
The risers were loud, and they weren’t all in the same sector. SGR: 7.20% → 8.94% (+1.74%). This is the week’s headline move because it’s pure intent. A near-9% short position says the market wants to be paid to believe in a turnaround. DRO: 4.82% → 6.44% (+1.63%). Defence tech can run hard on contract headlines, then get tested when the news flow slows and valuation does the talking. Shorts stepping up here looks like a bet on timing risk around procurement cycles and revenue recognition (DRO report: https://www.droneshield.com/s/2025-3q-9acb.pdf; TAM material: http://www.droneshield.com/s/2025-Total-Addressable-Market-Report.pdf). DMP: 12.41% → 13.12% (+0.71%). That’s classic earnings positioning behaviour: shorts don’t need a collapse, just a reminder that cost pressure and competition haven’t gone away. BGL: 5.70% → 6.39% (+0.69%). Gold developers attract the same scepticism every cycle: funding, build risk, and schedule risk. BOE: 17.61% → 18.27% (+0.67%). More weight on the uranium ramp-up trade. On the cover side, IOZ: 1.10% → 0.06% (-1.04%) is the clearest “hedges off” print in the dataset. DXS: 1.93% → 1.26% (-0.68%) suggests less appetite to press rate-sensitive REIT shorts right now. And PLS: 14.26% → 13.69% (-0.57%) looks like profit-taking in a crowded lithium short rather than a change of mind.
This week’s tape splits neatly into two stories. First: uranium crowding. BOE (18.27%), PDN (16.00%) and DYL (10.91%) all sit in the top 10, with BOE and DYL adding shorts (+0.67% and +0.31%). That’s not a rejection of the long-term nuclear narrative; it’s a bet that the equity hype and the operational grind don’t line up cleanly in the near term. Second: pressure on the consumer and “story stock” end of the market. SGR and DMP both saw meaningful increases (+1.74% and +0.71%), while IEL remains heavily shorted at 12.57% (+0.17%). In plain terms: higher-for-longer rates keep wallets tight, and shorts are choosing businesses where a soft patch shows up quickly in earnings. Meanwhile, the unwind in IOZ (-1.04%) is the positioning tell. When index ETF shorts get covered that aggressively, it often means portfolios are running less protection into the next week’s risk.
Watch BOE’s short interest next week. At 18.27% and still rising (+0.67%), any operational update that shifts confidence in the ramp-up will move the stock hard, fast, and in one direction.
Yes. Instruments like bond lines can show short interest above 100% because of securities lending and how positions are created and re-lent through the system. It’s a technical/hedging line item, not an equity-style squeeze setup.
It means new short positions were added aggressively (+1.74% in a week). That’s traders leaning into downside risk rather than quietly maintaining an existing view.
IOZ is commonly used as a broad market hedge. A move from 1.10% to 0.06% (-1.04%) usually signals hedges being unwound rather than a view on any single company.
Because the long thesis (structural uranium demand) and the short thesis (ramp-up, commissioning, guidance and timing risk) can both be true at once. Shorts are targeting the part that can disappoint quickly: delivery.
No. PLS is still heavily shorted at 13.69%. This week’s -0.57% looks like traders taking profit or reducing risk, not abandoning the lithium pricing thesis.
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.
