COST Short Volume
Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) operates in the Consumer Defensive sector, specifically the Discount Stores industry, with a market capitalization near $426.23B, listed on NASDAQ, employing roughly 341,000 people, carrying a beta of 0.86 to the broader market. Costco Wholesale Corporation, alongside its group entities, operates membership-based retail warehouses across a broad international scope, spanning the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Spain, France, Iceland, China, and Taiwan. Led by Ron Vachris, public since 1986-07-09.
Short volume measures the number of shares sold short on a given day as reported by FINRA. Tracking short volume relative to total volume helps identify unusual bearish sentiment or short-squeeze potential.
- Latest Date
- 2026-08-14
- Short Volume
- 140.0K
- Total Volume
- 381.5K
- Short %
- 36.70%
- 30-Day Avg Short %
- 38.53%
Showing 30 days of FINRA short volume data for Costco Wholesale Corporation.
Learn how short volume is reported and how to read the data →
COST most-active contracts
| Type | Strike | Expiration | Volume | OI | IV | Bid | Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CALL | $970.00 | Aug 21, 2026 | 198 | 1.9K | 18.5% | $6.15 | $6.70 |
Top 1 contracts from the institutional-grade nightly options scan; ranked by volume within the broader S&P 500/400/600 + ETF universe.
Frequently asked COST short volume questions
- What is the daily COST short volume?
- As of Aug 14, 2026, Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) short volume is 140.0K shares against 381.5K total reported volume, or 36.70% short-side. Short volume measures shares sold short during the day; it is flow, not inventory.
- How is COST short volume reported?
- FINRA publishes the Daily Short Sale Volume File for trades reported to FINRA TRFs and the FINRA/Nasdaq ADF on a T+1 basis. The headline figure is the count of shares that printed at the short-sale or short-exempt tick across all reporting venues for the symbol; each exchange separately publishes its own daily short-sale data file.
- What does COST short volume tell options traders?
- Daily short-sale flow is one input that helps disambiguate dealer-hedging activity from directional bear flow when the chain shows fresh customer call inventory. It is not a clean MM-only proxy: the headline number mixes directional shorting, options-MM delta-hedging, ETF-creation arbitrage, and convertible-arb hedging. Cross-check against gamma-exposure and OI changes for a cleaner read.