Public Float
Public float (or just "float") is the number of a company's shares that are available to be traded by the general investing public. Excludes:
- Shares held by company insiders (officers, directors, 10%+ owners)
- Restricted shares (employee equity that hasn't vested or unlocked)
- Treasury shares (shares the company has repurchased and hasn't cancelled)
- Strategic / long-term holders that have signalled non-tradability
Why float matters
Liquidity: float determines how much of the company can actually change hands on a given day. A $50 billion market-cap company with 90% float has a ~$45 billion tradeable pool; the same market cap with 50% float (founder-controlled, recent IPO, etc.) has $25 billion. Less float = more price impact per dollar of order flow.
Volatility: lower-float stocks move farther on the same dollar inflow / outflow. A name with 100M float is far more squeezable than one with 1B float, all else equal.
Short squeeze potential: short-interest-as-percent-of-float is the most-cited metric for squeeze potential. A short interest equal to 20% of FLOAT means 1 in 5 of the freely tradable shares is sold short — extreme by historical standards and a tell-tale squeeze candidate.
Float vs shares outstanding
Shares outstanding is the total share count including insider-held and restricted shares. Float is the public subset. The ratio float / shares outstanding is sometimes called the public float percentage and is a useful liquidity proxy.
How floats change
- IPO unlocks: typically 180 days after IPO, founder and pre-IPO investor shares become tradeable. Float can dramatically expand on the unlock date
- Secondary offerings: company issues new shares, float grows
- Buybacks: company repurchases shares, float shrinks
- Insider sales: when an insider sells through 10b5-1 plans, those shares enter the float
Top Tier Newswire and float
Short-interest-as-percent-of-float is one of the inputs to the AI Top Trades evidence pack (via the Ownership / Short block). Sub-15% is normal; 15-25% is elevated squeeze potential on the long side; over 25% is extreme — a flag for both long-side squeeze fuel and short-side crowded-trade risk.