The fee to borrow the shares to short them is up to 140 per cent,, but that hasn't dampened demand. More than 27 per cent of Tupperware's shares are currently being shorted, which is an ideal condition for a "short squeeze" — a scenario where rising stock prices force short sellers to buy into the company to cover their losses, causing more and more buying pressure as they do.
"Sometimes market participants don't act rationally. On the other hand, acting rationally, you can also end up getting burned." While a short squeeze is clearly afoot, some investors say that's not all that's going on. Calum Rodger of Winnipeg, who produces investment content on his YouTube channel Trending Stocks, said despite whatever problems Tupperware has, a stock price below $1 wasn't justified, so trading in shares to a point where they are now worth more than $200 million is more than warranted.
Rodger said he tends not to trade in stocks experiencing a short squeeze because he doesn't share that "fight against the power" ethos of teaching Wall Street a lesson that many retail traders tend to have. But he said there are reasons to bid up the company's shares even without trying to get in on a short squeeze.