Answered By: Bobray Bordelon
Last Updated: Jan 02, 2025     Views: 103

To sell short is to sell shares that you do not own with the hope that the shares decline in value and can be purchased in the future at a lower price to cover the trade and make a profit.

Short interest is a count of shares that have been sold short.  This is reported on the 15th and last day of the month.

The Short Interest Ratio is the number of shares sold short/average daily trading volume – this is also known as Days to Cover.

Data on short interest: 

  • Finaeon (formerly Global Financial Data) has the data for the NYSE in aggregate.
  • For company data use Compustat - under Security Monthly 
  • Bloomberg has the data by company as well. Company Ticker <equity> SI is the code on Bloomberg to use. Bloomberg has international short interest data. 
  • NASDAQ.com - can find up to 25 companies at a time.

Data from the NYSE on Short Sales 

  •  Short Sales*. January 2005 - July 6, 2007 (NYSE) is available through WRDS.  July 2007 - June 2014 for NYSE is available locally.  July 2014+ (daily) for NYSE and NASDAQ is also available locally. Most recent data is available through FINRA. 
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