Days to cover.

In plain English

Days to cover divides the number of shares sold short by the stock's average daily trading volume, turning a raw short position into an estimate of exit time. The result is a rough count of how many full days of normal trading it would take for every short position to be closed. A high number means the exit is narrow relative to the crowd trying to use it, which is the setup for a violent move if shorts start covering at once. The measure is only an estimate, because volume jumps during the very episodes it is meant to describe. It is the same calculation as the short interest ratio, expressed as a number of days.

01Why it matters

A high days-to-cover number tells you the door is small relative to the crowd, so ordinary news can produce an outsized price move in a stock you own.

02The math, step by step

Say 12 million shares are sold short and the stock trades 3 million shares a day on average. Days to cover is 12 divided by 3, which is 4. If average volume were 500,000 shares, the same short position would be 24 days to cover.

Illustrative example. The amounts here are hypothetical, chosen to show how the math works, not real quoted rates or figures.

03What this is NOT

04Receipts

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