Short interest and days to cover

The short interest (shares sold short), days-to-cover (short interest ÷ average daily volume — how many normal trading days it would take to buy every short back), and short interest as a % of shares outstanding from real bi-monthly settlement data, plus the settlement trend and the daily short-volume ratio — short sales as a share of off-exchange (FINRA-reported) volume, not consolidated volume. A crowded short with a high days-to-cover is more squeeze-prone — but crowding is a magnitude, not a direction: a crowded short can stay crowded, and this board makes no call.