ClaimsMichael Burry

“It’s a perfect storm for Build-A-Bear (BBW), a one-of-one retailer now heavily shorted, 25% of the float, almost 9 days to cover.”

Michael Burry, X post 30 October 2026 Post by @michaeljburry on X, 2026-10-30 (X)

Factual Economics and markets

Build-A-Bear (BBW) is heavily shorted, with short interest at 25% of the float and almost 9 days to cover.

Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

What would count as true or false

Judged as of 2026-10-30, using the most recent short-interest data available then (the exchange settlement report for late October 2026 or the closest earlier one). True: BBW short interest is about 25% of float (roughly 23–27%) and days to cover is 'almost 9' (roughly 8–9). Mostly true: one metric is slightly off, for example short interest is 21–23% or 27–29% of float, or days to cover is 7–8 or 9–10, while the other matches and the stock is clearly heavily shorted. Mixed: one metric matches and the other is clearly off. Mostly false: BBW is shorted well above typical levels (for example more than 10% of float), but both stated figures are substantially wrong. False: short interest is low (for example under 10% of float) and days to cover is far below 9. Differences between data providers' float definitions should be taken into account: if any widely used provider (Nasdaq/FINRA-based, S3, Ortex, FactSet) supports the figures, that counts.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (4)

  1. E1 Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW) Short Interest & Short Float | Updated Nov 2026 $BBW MarketBeat · 26 October 2026

    “As of October 15, 2026, Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW) had a short interest of 2.82 million shares sold short, representing 23.84% of the public float.”

  2. E2 Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW) Short Interest & Short Float | Updated Nov 2026 $BBW MarketBeat · 26 October 2026

    “The short interest ratio (days to cover) is 9.5, meaning it would take 9.5 days of the average trading volume of 449,486 shares to cover all short positions.”

  3. E3 Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. (BBW) short interest: 22.88% of shares outstanding HowShorted

    “9.52 days for settlement date 15 Oct 2026: FINRA's own short interest ratio, the reported shares short divided by average daily trading volume.”

  4. E4 Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. (BBW) short interest: 22.88% of shares outstanding HowShorted

    “22.88% of Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc.'s (BBW) shares outstanding were reported short for settlement date 15 Oct 2026, per FINRA's consolidated short interest report.”

Reasoning

I used the October 15, 2026 settlement data, the most recent available by October 30. MarketBeat put BBW short interest at 23.84% of the public float as of October 15, 2026 (E1). That falls within the 23–27% range the criteria treat as about 25%. For days to cover, MarketBeat gave 9.5 (E2) and HowShorted gave FINRA's figure of 9.52 (E3). That is slightly above "almost 9" and falls in the 9–10 band, which the criteria rate as mostly true when the other metric matches and the stock is clearly heavily shorted.

Cite this claim

Michael Burry, “Build-A-Bear (BBW) is heavily shorted, with short interest at 25% of the float and almost 9 days to cover.” (said 30 October 2026). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_0060e10d1422, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_0060e10d1422

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

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All of them

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