Glossary
The terms behind the numbers on this site, in plain English. For how the data is collected and validated, see the methodology; for longer explanations, the guides.
- Short selling
- Selling a borrowed share in the expectation of buying it back later at a lower price, returning it to the lender and keeping the difference. The regulatory data on this site measures disclosed net short positions, not individual trades.
- Net short position
- A holder's short exposure to a company minus their long exposure, expressed as a percentage of the company's issued share capital. Regulators require disclosure once this net figure crosses a threshold.
- Short interest
- The general term for how much of a company's share capital is held short. Each regime measures it differently; see the entries for ANSP, FINRA short interest, named registers and ASIC reporting. What is short interest?.
- FINRA short interest (US)
- The US measure: FINRA member broker-dealers report the short positions on their books as of two settlement dates a month, and FINRA publishes one consolidated total per security about nine business days later. We show it as a percentage of shares outstanding per each company's SEC filings. Holders are not named. US short interest explained.
- Aggregate net short position (ANSP)
- The UK measure, published daily by the FCA from 13 July 2026: the sum of every individual net short position of at least 0.2% of a company's issued share capital. Individual holders are not named. ANSP explained.
- Named register
- The EU-style publication model used in France, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden: each individual net short position of 0.5% or more of share capital is published with the position holder's name. Our league figures for these markets sum the named positions per company. EU registers explained.
- Disclosure threshold
- The size a position must reach before it becomes publicly visible. UK: individual positions of 0.2% or more are included in the published aggregate. EU markets: individual positions become public at 0.5%. Australia: short sellers report from A$100,000 or 0.01% of capital, so the ASIC aggregate is close to complete.
- Disclosure floor
- Why published figures understate true short interest where thresholds apply: positions below the threshold exist but are invisible, so the published number is a floor, not a census. This matters most for the EU named registers.
- Position date vs publication date
- The position date is the day a short position existed; the publication date is the day the regulator released the figure. They are never the same day: the UK publishes two working days after the position date, Australia four trading days after, and the US about nine business days after each twice-monthly settlement date. Every figure on this site is stamped with its position date.
- T+4 (Australia)
- ASIC publishes each trading day's aggregate short positions four trading days in arrears, so the latest Australian figures always describe a day four sessions ago. ASIC data explained.
- Reportable Shares List (RSL)
- The FCA's list of the shares within scope of the UK short-selling regime. A company must be on the RSL for positions in it to be reportable; we track additions and removals. New & leaving.
- Revision
- Regulators sometimes amend previously published figures. When our daily re-read of the trailing window detects a change, the old and new values are both archived, and revised figures carry a small ʳ marker. Methodology.
- Percentage points (pp)
- How changes are measured on this site. A move from 2.0% to 3.0% of share capital is a rise of 1.0 percentage point, not a 50% rise. Movers lists rank by percentage-point change.
- Covering
- Buying back borrowed shares to close a short position. In the data, sustained covering shows up as a falling disclosed short position.
- Short squeeze
- A rapid price rise that pressures short sellers to buy back shares, which can push the price higher still. Disclosure data shows positioning, not prices, so a squeeze cannot be identified from this site's data alone. Short squeeze basics.
- Days to cover
- Short interest divided by average daily trading volume: an estimate of how many days of typical trading it would take shorts to exit. Not shown on this site, because computing it requires licensed trading-volume data, which we deliberately do not use.