Best stocks to short now

Screening Filters

1. Market Capitalization ≥ $1B (market_cap >= 1,000,000,000)

   • Purpose: Focus on established, more liquid companies that are realistically shortable.
   • Rationale: Very small caps can be illiquid, heavily manipulated, or hard/expensive to borrow for shorting. Using mid–large caps improves execution quality and reduces the risk that a short position gets squeezed purely due to low float/low liquidity rather than fundamentals.

2. Share Price Between $3 and $250 (price 3–250)

   • Purpose: Avoid penny stocks and ultra-high-priced names.
   • Rationale:
     • Stocks under ~$3 often have extreme volatility, poor liquidity, and are sometimes subject to special short-sale restrictions.
     • Very high-priced stocks (e.g., >$250) can be capital-intensive to short and can make risk management more difficult on a per-share basis.
     • This range targets stocks that are commonly available for borrowing and trading by most brokers.

3. Monthly Average Dollar Volume ≥ $500,000 (monthly_average_dollar_volume >= 500,000)

   • Purpose: Ensure sufficient liquidity for entering and exiting short positions.
   • Rationale: Dollar volume (price × volume) directly measures how much money trades in and out daily. Low dollar volume can lead to large slippage, difficulty covering, and a higher risk of short squeezes. This filter improves tradability and execution.

4. Quarterly Price Change ≤ -8% (quarter_price_change_pct max -8)

   • Purpose: Find stocks already showing weakness in price over the last quarter.
   • Rationale: A stock that is down at least 8% over the past quarter is already in a downtrend or under pressure. For short sellers, this can indicate that negative fundamentals or sentiment are being recognized by the market, potentially pointing to a continuing bearish trend rather than fighting strong upward momentum.

5. Major U.S. Exchanges Only (list_exchange in [XNYS, XNAS, XASE])

   • Purpose: Restrict to primary, reputable U.S. exchanges.
   • Rationale: NYSE, NASDAQ, and NYSE American generally have stricter listing standards, better liquidity, and better data quality. This aligns with “best US stocks to short” as opposed to OTC or foreign listings, which can be more opaque and riskier operationally.

6. Region: United States (region = United States)

   • Purpose: Match the user’s focus on U.S. stocks.
   • Rationale: Excludes ADRs or foreign listings so that the universe is strictly U.S.-domiciled companies, which also tend to share a common regulatory and macro backdrop (Fed policy, U.S. economy, etc.).

7. Quarterly EPS YoY Growth ≤ 0% (quarter_eps_yoy_growth max 0)

   • Purpose: Target companies with flat or declining earnings.
   • Rationale: Negative or zero year-over-year EPS growth is a sign of deteriorating or stagnant profitability. For short candidates, weakening earnings support the thesis that the current valuation may be unsustainable and that further downside is possible if earnings continue to disappoint.

8. High Valuation: P/E (TTM) ≥ 30 (pe_ttm min 30)

   • Purpose: Focus on potentially overvalued stocks on earnings basis.
   • Rationale: A trailing price-to-earnings ratio above 30 is elevated relative to long-term market averages. When high P/E is combined with weak or negative EPS growth, it suggests the market is still pricing in optimism that may no longer be justified, making the stock more vulnerable to multiple compression (declining P/E) and price declines.

9. High Valuation: Price-to-Sales ≥ 6 (ps_ratio min 6)

   • Purpose: Capture stocks that are expensive relative to revenue.
   • Rationale: A P/S above 6 is typically considered rich, especially if growth is slowing. For shorting, this is useful because if sentiment shifts or growth disappoints, high P/S names often see sharper re-ratings, as there is more “air” in the valuation to come out.

10. Analyst Consensus Not Bullish (analyst_consensus in [Moderate Buy, Hold, Moderate Sell, Strong Sell])

    • Purpose: Avoid stocks that Wall Street overwhelmingly loves; include neutral to bearish sentiment.
    • Rationale:
      • Excluding “Strong Buy / Buy” removes the names with very strong positive analyst conviction, which are more prone to continued institutional support.
      • Including Moderate Buy, Hold, Moderate Sell, and Strong Sell focuses on stocks where sentiment is mixed to negative, leaving room for further downgrades or negative estimate revisions—both supportive of a short thesis.

Why Results Match the Request (“Best US stocks to short currently”)

• The universe is limited to U.S.-listed, tradable, and reasonably liquid stocks, making them realistically shortable.
• Filters on high P/E and high P/S isolate names that appear expensive relative to earnings and sales, classic characteristics of short candidates when fundamentals weaken.
• Zero or negative EPS growth plus recent negative price performance indicates companies where fundamentals and price action are already deteriorating, rather than fighting an uptrend.
• The analyst consensus filter avoids the most loved stocks and leans toward those where professional sentiment is neutral to bearish, which can compound downside if more downgrades come.

Altogether, these filters look for U.S. stocks that are: liquid, overvalued, fundamentally weakening, already under price pressure, and not strongly supported by analysts—conditions that make them more compelling short candidates than the broad market.