Every trading day, FINRA publishes off-exchange volume per symbol. It is free, it is T+1, and it is widely misread. This page explains exactly what the file contains — and the four things it cannot tell you.
What the file contains
- Total off-exchange volume per symbol for the prior session, in shares.
- Short volume — the portion reported with a short-sale modifier.
- Short exempt volume — a small subset exempt from the locate requirement.
What it does not contain
- No buy/sell side. The file tells you a trade was marked short, not that the customer was bearish. Market-maker hedging is reported the same way.
- No venue breakdown. Dark pools, internalisers and other off-exchange venues are aggregated into one number.
- No identity. You cannot tell a hedge fund from a retail wholesaler.
- No direction over time. A high short ratio can mean new shorts, or the same shorts being rolled and hedged repeatedly.
Why the short ratio is usually 40-55%
Because market makers report both legs of their hedges, the market-wide short volume ratio sits in a fairly narrow band. A reading near 47% is normal, not bearish. What matters is deviation: a symbol printing far above its own 20-day average, or a short ratio that moves sharply away from the market baseline.
How we flag an anomaly
- Compare the day's off-exchange volume to the symbol's own 20-day average.
- Compute a z-score so one-off spikes in illiquid names do not dominate.
- Show the short ratio next to it — volume without context is not a signal.
- Never claim a direction. The data supports "unusual activity", not "someone is selling".
Latest session
dp.date: 20261111 · 12,235 symbols · 7.88B shares off-exchange · 47.6% short volume
- NVDA114.4M34.1% short
- INTC59.5M33.7% short
- AAL32.4M33.8% short
- TQQQ31.7M53.4% short
- BITO27.2M48.3% short
Source: FINRA Reg SHO daily short sale volume files, published T+1. Our monitor covers the most-traded US names; the raw file includes the full listed universe.