Shares outstanding vs free float

Shares outstanding is every share in existence; the float excludes shares held by insiders and long-term holders. Percentages differ depending on which is used.

Many estimate sites express US short interest as a percentage of float, which is always the smaller number, so their percentages run higher than ours for the same stock on the same date. Neither is wrong; they answer different questions. Percent of shares outstanding says how much of the whole company is sold short; percent of float says how much of the tradable supply is.

This site uses shares outstanding for the US because it is the figure companies state on their own SEC filings, and because it matches how the UK, EU and Australian percentages are defined, keeping the markets comparable.