Europe's named short registers, explained

Europe publishes something no other major region does any more: the names of individual short sellers. Under the EU Short Selling Regulation, every net short position of 0.5% or more of a company's share capital is publicly disclosed with the position holder identified. That is the data behind our France, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden sections, the "Who is short?" table on every European company page, and the cross-market position holder pages.

How EU disclosure works

An investor whose net short position reaches 0.1% of a company's issued share capital must report it to the national regulator privately. At 0.5%, the position becomes public: the regulator publishes the holder's name, the company, the exact percentage and the position date, updating at every 0.1% step until the position falls back below 0.5% (which is also disclosed, as an exit). Each European country (EU and EEA alike) runs its own register through its national regulator; there is no single EU-wide file.

What we publish

For each market we do two things. First, we aggregate: summing every named position of 0.5%+ per company gives a per-company total comparable to the UK's and Australia's aggregates, which powers the league table, movers and charts. Second, we keep the names: each company page lists the current named holders with their latest disclosed percentage and date.

The aggregate is a floor. Positions between 0.1% and 0.5% are known only to the regulator, so the true short interest in a company is at least what we show, and can be meaningfully higher in names shorted by many small positions.

Our European sources

• France: the AMF's register, published as open data with full history back to 2012. Around 100 companies carry disclosable positions at any time; Ubisoft has spent much of the past decade among the most shorted.
• Sweden: Finansinspektionen's blankningsregistret. Sweden is one of Europe's most actively shorted markets relative to its size; real-estate groups have dominated the top of the table in recent years.
• Norway: Finanstilsynet's Short Sale Register, the cleanest source of all: one API with full history and named holders. Norway applies the EU regime through the EEA; Nordic real-estate and shipping names feature heavily.
• Netherlands: the AFM's register (source: AFM, www.afm.nl), with an archive back to 2012. A concentrated market: a couple of dozen companies carry disclosable positions at any time, and the same global funds appear across many of them.
• More countries: Germany, Italy and others run equivalent registers; we add markets once their data terms and formats are verified. The framework is ready.

Europe vs the UK and Australia

• Names: Europe names holders; the UK (since July 2026) and Australia publish anonymous aggregates only.
• Threshold: Europe's public floor is 0.5% per holder; the UK counts positions from 0.2% into its aggregate; Australia counts nearly everything (reporting from A$100k or 0.01%).
• Timing: EU disclosures land the trading day after a position crosses a threshold; the UK publishes T+2, Australia T+4.

Sources, licences and the exact aggregation rules are documented in the methodology.