also, as a side anecdote about short squeezes: people were really expecting one these past few months with Tesla regarding its SolarCity merger. The thought was

also, as a side anecdote about short squeezes: people were really expecting one these past few months with Tesla regarding its SolarCity merger. The thought was that since there was a potential merger coming up, shareholders were going to need to vote on it one way or the other. That meant that Tesla's institutional shareholders were going to have to recall their loaned shares from short sellers because if the stock were loaned out at the vote record date then the institution technically didn't own it and wouldn't be able to vote on the merger. Since Tesla has such a large percentage of institutional ownership this would trigger a short squeeze. For whatever reason this never materialized but I don't know why. There's a possibility it may have been against SEC rules or that institutions gradually recalled their shares so as not to disturb things too much.