Glossary
Short Interest
Short Interest is aggregated positions in securities sold short; finra-data-catalog-and-api records "short interest biweekly from 2014 to present, OTC-only before June 2021; each biweekly CSV roughly 2 MB covering thousands of securities; granularity: per security per settlement cycle". In Datadory's catalog of 1,744 datasets, finra-data-catalog-and-api and FINRA API Developer Center are working examples.
What is Short Interest?
Aggregated positions in securities sold short, reported twice monthly for each security per settlement cycle.
FINRA publishes biweekly short interest CSVs from 2014 onward — OTC-only before June 2021 — each about 2 MB and covering thousands of securities.
In this catalog it appears concretely: - finra-data-catalog-and-api — "short interest biweekly from 2014 to present, OTC-only before June 2021; each biweekly CSV roughly 2 MB covering thousands of securities; granularity: per security per settlement cycle". - FINRA API Developer Center (what it publishes) — "datasets including TRACE, short interest, OTC equity volumes".
Why does Short Interest matter when choosing a dataset?
Conventions decide whether two sources can be joined at all. Buy one side of an analysis that ignores this convention and every reconciliation step — calendar alignment, unit conversion, entity matching — lands on your team instead of the vendor's.
The failure mode is concrete: a source can carry the Short Interest label while differing from what you need on exactly the dimension that matters — short interest biweekly from 2014 to present, OTC-only before June 2021; each biweekly CSV roughly 2 MB covering thousands of securities; granularity: per security per settlement cycle. Comparing two sources on that line usually settles the choice faster than any feature matrix.
You rarely have to take a vendor's word for it. 82.4% of the 1,744 datasets Datadory catalogs are free to access, and finra-data-catalog-and-api lets you inspect the real artifact before any budget is committed.
How do you evaluate Short Interest in a data source?
Treat every claim of this attribute as testable:
- Open finra-data-catalog-and-api and confirm its record — "short interest biweekly from 2014 to present, OTC-only before June 2021; each biweekly CSV roughly 2 MB covering thousands of securities; granularity: per security per settlement cycle" — against the files you actually receive. 2. Read FINRA API Developer Center's record on what it publishes — "datasets including TRACE, short interest, OTC equity volumes" — then confirm the delivered artifact matches before you license anything. 3. Pin down update cadence in writing.
Related terms
Adjacent concepts worth reading next: - filex bulk transfer - rule 606 order routing - trace - trace bond trade reporting
Frequently asked questions
What is an example of Short Interest?
finra-data-catalog-and-api is the clearest example in this catalog. Its record states: "short interest biweekly from 2014 to present, OTC-only before June 2021; each biweekly CSV roughly 2 MB covering thousands of securities; granularity: per security per settlement cycle". Across all 1,744 datasets Datadory averages a quality score of 7.81 out of 10, so a named example can be weighed rather than trusted blindly.
Is data described as "Short Interest" free to use?
Treat access and permission separately. 82.4% of the 1,744 datasets in this catalog are free to access, but 235 are freemium and 61 are paid outright, so confirm both the price and the license on the exact distribution before building on it.
How do I verify a source really provides Short Interest?
Open finra-data-catalog-and-api next to FINRA API Developer Center and compare the promise with the download. Field definitions are verified for 1495 of 1,744 datasets (85.7%), which makes that check fast inside the catalog and manual outside it.
Datasets containing this field
Datasets containing Short Interest
6 datasets carry short interest in the catalog. Open one, count the fields, judge for yourself.
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