Key Takeaways
- Ashtead Technology, Domino’s Pizza Group, and J Sainsbury top the list of the UK’s most-shorted stocks.
- Shorted stock WPP climbs the list and is trading below its fair value.
- ITM Power, up 131% this year, is a new entrant to the list this month.
Each month we check in on the stocks that are the most shorted on the London Stock Exchange, as revealed in the daily list published by the UK financial regulator.
In a short sale, an investor bets that the price of a stock will fall, by selling borrowed shares that they hope to buy again at a lower cost. The reasons behind a short position can vary, but the data can provide investors with information about sentiment surrounding a stock.
Stocks that have been heavily shorted can also be candidates for a sharp share price spike. This is known as a short-squeeze and can be prompted by positive news on a company that leads short-sellers to rush to buy shares of the stock they had sold.
Which Stocks Are the UK’s Most Shorted?
The Financial Conduct Authority reports the amount of short positions in publicly traded stocks every day as well as the names of the institutions holding those positions. The data for this article is compiled by totaling open short positions taken over the past 30 days to provide a picture of net short positions in a company.
Data is included for all stocks where at least 3% of shares are shorted. On Oct. 27, 2025, the list included 25 stocks, with net short positions ranging from 8.08% in Ashtead Technology Holdings AT. to 3.08% for Future FUTR.
Domino’s Pizza Group DOM takes second place, followed by UK supermarket firm Sainsbury’s SBRY in third.
Also among the most-shorted stocks are household names Greggs GRG, Ocado OCDO, WH Smith SMWH and ITV ITV.
Ashtead Technology remains the most-shorted stock in the UK for another month with 8.08% of its shares shorted. It moved from the Alternative Investment Market to the main market of the London Stock Exchange at the start of October, initially sending its shares 15% higher, before returning to pre-move levels. Shares in the company are down 39% year-to-date after a large share price drop in July when earnings failed to meet investor expectations. The biggest bet against the subsea equipment provider was a 2.15% position by Boston-based Acadian Asset Management, which has been open since Sept. 30, followed by GLG Partners with 1.5% and Voleon Capital with 1%.
Sainsbury’s shares have also remained at the top of the most-shorted list with 6.70% of its share capital shorted.
Its biggest shorter, London-based hedge fund Ilex Capital Partners, holds a 2.19% position against Sainsbury’s, making it the largest position taken by any firm over the past 30 days. Other shorters include AKO Capital with 1.59% and BlackRock Investment Management’s 1.05% position.
Sainsbury’s is trading at £3.42 after its shares rose 29% in the year to date— in line with Morningstar’s Fair Value Estimate of £3.41. In September, Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, says hedge funds are shorting the UK grocer due to its valuation and doubts that it can maintain its positive share price performance.
The supermarket chain is among several companies in the list that could have been targeted due to strong share price growth. ITM Power ITM has increased 132% so far this year, and 3.56% of its stocks are shorted. The newly rebranded asset manager Aberdeen ABDN, which has been a fixture in the most-shorted list over the past years, has grown 55% this year. However, the stock’s current price of £2.03 is still significantly below its 2015 highs above £5. BlackRock holds a 1.57% position against Aberdeen.
Shares in WPP WPP have fallen 60% this year and trade at £3.03, 82% below their fair value of £5.50. The stock has also gone from being the 20th most shorted stock in September, to the fourth most shorted and a net position of 6.34% in the stock in October.
Other Morningstar-rated stocks that feature among the most-shorted for the month are Kingfisher KGF, Wizz Air WIZZ and Ocado Group OCDO. Kingfisher is the only stock among these that is currently trading above its fair value, after its share price has increased 32% this year.
What Is Short-Selling? How Does It Work?
Short-selling can be a highly profitable way to exploit the falling share price of companies in distress. It involves selling shares investors don’t own to make a profit from the fall in the price.
To do this, an investor borrows them from specialist firms like brokers to sell them at the current market price with the hope of buying them back at a cheaper price later. This active trading strategy taken by professional investors often provides an early warning sign of problems ahead that can be picked up on by all, and can change investor behavior towards a company.
But market participants holding short positions in stocks that rise sharply can suffer extreme losses due to the use of leverage or borrowed money. Some traders use “limit orders” to cap their losses in this scenario, the same way they use “stop losses” when share prices are falling.
Firms that have attracted short-sellers in the past include UK travel firm Thomas Cook and scandal-hit tech firm Wirecard in Germany.
Shorting tends to attract other shorters, however, and some argue it only hastens the demise of a company. Sometimes a company on a shorting list may have terminal problems; other times it’s just a temporary loss of confidence before a turnaround, or a buyout, which takes the company off the market or puts it in new hands.
Alongside specialist trading firms and hedge funds like Marshall Wace, some of the biggest asset managers are involved in shorting, including BlackRock, Jupiter, and JP Morgan.
