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Float rotation

Daily volume divided by the free float: how many times the tradeable share count changed hands in a session, used to gauge the intensity of a momentum move.

A rotation above 1 means more shares traded than actually exist in public hands, which can only happen through repeated intraday turnover by short-term traders. It is a sign that the holder base has been entirely replaced and that the price is being set by flow rather than by valuation.

Small float plus high rotation plus hard-to-borrow status is the classic profile of a squeeze. The same reading is also a warning that the stock can retrace just as fast once the flow stops.

Example: a stock with a 6M share float trades 21M shares. The float rotated 3.5 times in one session, so the average share changed hands every couple of hours.

Related: float, days-to-cover, short-squeeze, hard-to-borrow, meme-stock

See it drawn

Original diagrams for the ideas on this page. Illustrative, not real market data.

Bollinger bands squeezing and then expandingA price line between three curves: an average in the middle and a band above and below it that pinch together in the centre of the chart and then spread apart as the price runs higher.PRICE WITH BOLLINGER BANDS (20, 2)SQUEEZEupper bandpricemiddle band20-day averagelower bandbands widen asvolatility risesIllustrative prices. The bands sit two standard deviations from the average.
Bollinger bands: squeeze and expansion. The middle line is a 20-day average and the outer bands sit a set number of standard deviations away, so they measure how far price has recently been straying. When moves are small the bands pinch together; when moves grow they spread apart.

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