Days to Cover
Short interest divided by average daily volume. Estimates how many trading days it would take all short sellers to buy back their shares.
Days to Cover = Short Interest ÷ Average Daily Volume
Days to cover (also called the short ratio) measures how long it would take — at normal trading volume — for every short seller to close their position. A high days-to-cover number means shorts are deeply entrenched relative to daily liquidity.
A days-to-cover above 5–10 days is considered elevated. In a squeeze scenario, shorts trying to cover into rising prices amplify the upward move, because they are competing with buyers for the same limited shares.
Days to cover is more informative than raw short interest because it normalizes for trading activity. A stock with 10 million shares short and 5 million average daily volume (2 days) is less squeezable than one with 10 million short and 500,000 daily volume (20 days).