Dilution & risk gauges

Small stocks make big moves — that’s the appeal and the danger. These gauges put the risk next to the excitement, so you see both in the same glance.

Cash runway

Small companies spend money while they wait for their big day. Runway is how many months their cash lasts, counted from the date of the company’s last cash figure — so it reads like ~3 mo from Jun 30, with the month it runs to beside it. Once that month has passed you’ll see Check for a raise since: by the numbers the cash would be gone, so the company has most likely raised money (or cut spending) since. Where we can tell from the filings that a raise was completed after that cash figure, the stock page says so: A raise dated … came after this cash figure. You’ll find it beside the month the cash runs to — or in place of Check for a raise since once that month has passed, where a company’s card on Runners and Catalysts says it in a few words too. The cash, the runway and the risk level still count from the older figure; when that is all the level rests on, the line beside it reads Scored on cash as of …, before the raise dated …. When neither line is there, a raise may still have happened: Raise history underneath lists the raises on file, with their dates. In Full Scan’s Runway column a passed estimate reads est. passed. The figure it starts from is labelled Cash & cash equivalents: the company’s cash plus the short-term investments it could spend. Hover the small (i) beside it for the figure’s date and where it came from — and, on cards that list them, the lines that were added up. When a company has a dated catalyst, a bar shows the two together: if the cash runs out before the date, you’ll see Funding gap — raise likely first. That usually means new shares.

Dilution risk

Read from the company’s own SEC filings. Low means there’s little paperwork in place to sell new shares quickly; High means it’s ready to go. The list behind it uses words you’ll see often:

• Shelf registration — pre-approval to sell shares later, whenever the company chooses.
• At-the-market (ATM) program — selling shares little by little into the market at the current price.
• S-1 offering — registering a new batch of shares to sell.
• Warrants — rights to buy new shares at a set price — they become new shares when used.

Squeeze fuel

A short squeeze happens when traders betting against a stock are forced to buy it back, pushing the price up fast. It needs fuel: heavy short interest, expensive borrowing, a small float. The dial blends these into one 0–100 number. High fuel doesn’t make a squeeze happen — it means that if buyers show up, the move has extra propellant.