Right now, the best pattern I see is buying short squeezes.
And THIS short squeeze was EPIC.
I’m sure you’ve heard about short squeezes (I talked about them last week).
But how do you recognize one in the heat of the moment?
More importantly, if you’re long-biased like me, how do you take advantage of it?
With a busy schedule, I sometimes miss the best plays (I’ve been filming this week, so I’ve been a little MIA).
But that doesn’t mean I can’t learn from it.
Today, I’ll break down one of the most beautiful short squeezes we’ve seen in a while.
This one was SOUL-CRUSHING for toxic, bitter lemon short sellers…
Anatomy of a Short Squeeze
I hope you witnessed it. Regardless, bookmark this post and review it regularly, because it has everything you need to know to understand this phenomenon (and take advantage of it in the future).
The stock: urban-gro Inc. (UGRO).
So it was already a runner on March 23 (I missed it while filming).
On that day, UGRO squeezed from the $5s to the $8s.
Source: StocksToTrade
UGRO, 3/23/2026, 1-min candle, breakout & short squeeze.
I thought $2 to $8 was max, then it squeezed to the $9s after-hours that day.
On the 24th, it consolidated, trading sideways most of the day.
Then on Wednesday March 25th, THIS happened…
Source: StocksToTrade
UGRO 3/23-25/2026, 1-min candle, breakout & short squeeze.
I had no idea that it would go to the $16s.
It was 10:40 a.m. when it broke out past the previous highs in the $9s.
Then it went from the $9s up to the $16s in ONE HOUR.
It happened SO fast that I missed it… AGAIN.
I saw it, but wasn’t really there for it … wish that I was.
I don’t short-sell anymore, but the old me would have shorted when it was in the $11s…
Source: StocksToTrade
UGRO 3/25/26 shorts loaded in, short squeeze.
And the old me would have been squeezed. This is WHY I don’t short sell anymore.
I thought it was overdone when it went from the $8s to the $11s.
You can see the volume started to fade, so shorts were loading in.
This is why I always thank short sellers…
Guess what?
UGRO probably never deserved to go above $11 (short sellers aren’t wrong, they’re just WAY too early and overaggressive).
But when there are SO many shorts and a stock holds its highs…
THAT opens the door to the squeeze.
And when it squeezes hard enough, it leads to…
Short Seller Soul-Crushing Volatility Halts
A volatility halt gets triggered when a stock’s price moves up or down too fast (it’s like a circuit breaker).
When shorts get squeezed into a halt, they often buy to cover coming out of it.
That “panic buying” can make the price gap up, or skip.
UGRO started skipping every time it came out of a volatility halt (see the chart below).
This is how shorts get trapped (and BIG short sellers BLOW UP)…
Source: StocksToTrade
UGRO 3/25/26, volatility halts, skips, bitter lemon, toxic short sellers trapped.
For all you big short sellers who don’t want to admit your losses publicly…
THANK YOU for sacrificing so much for us good guys. You ARE appreciated!
The crazy thing is that UGRO just kept going, hitting a high of $56.56 in after-hours trading.
That’s a whole lotta pain for short sellers.
Tips to Buy Breakouts In Short Squeezes
You can see the pattern on the chart below: Big spike, consolidation, spike, consolidation…
Source: StocksToTrade
UGRO 3/25/26 10 a.m. to 11:45 a.m, spike and consolidation.
You had multiple opportunities within that hour to get in. My bad for being busy AND conservative in my trading.
Long story short: I underestimated UGRO (and I didn’t want to chase it).
Short squeezes like this can have multiple lives.
You don’t want to be long on the backside.
The best breakout was the multi-day breakout over the previous highs at around $9 per share.
Even if you just took it from the $9s to the $10s, that would be a solid trade.
5 Tips to Buy Breakouts
1. Look for the breakout over a multi-day high (especially if the previous high was caused by a short squeeze like UGRO).
2. Watch for a repetitive “spike and consolidation” pattern.
3. Look for where shorts might pile in (fading volume and consolidation).
4. Buy the next breakout and set a tight stop on the previous consolidation level.
5. Sell into strength or cut losses quickly.
Look for stocks making these kinds of moves. All you have to do is look for runners that break the previous high.
There have already been MORE this week (I’ll cover one in another Tim Sykes Daily, watch your inbox).
Look for higher highs and lower lows.
When you see a stock uptrending and holding VWAP, there’s an opportunity (but don’t FOMO chase).
When it no longer makes new highs and it starts to fade, that’s the back side (it opens the door to cracking).
If you keep it that simple, ESPECIALLY with these heavily shorted low float plays…
They can really run.
If you have any questions, email me at [email protected].
Cheers,
Tim SykesEditor, Tim Sykes Daily
