Finra Daily Short Volume Spike
In plain terms
When daily short volume spikes on a stock that is already in a downtrend, that is informed shorts piling on. We short alongside for 1-4 weeks.
How it works
Informed shorts execute on days with elevated short_volume / total_volume; the next 20-day return on top-decile-spike stocks is -1.16% vs +0.18% bottom-decile.
Live results
31 times picked on its own · 113 times inside a blend (104 beat the stock) · updated 2026-06-06Data dependencies
- Daily prices
Adjusted-close OHLCV for every US-listed ticker; primary price feed.
- Finra short volume
A data feed this strategy reads, refreshed on its normal schedule.
Expected edge
- Reported return
- -1.16% over 20d (top decile)
- Tested over
- 2000-2004 (Boehmer-Jones-Zhang)
-1.16% over 20d on top-decile (Boehmer-Jones-Zhang 2008).
Related families
Stocks where short interest is persistently in the top 20% of their own history underperform by about 7% per year. Short these high-SI names for 1-6 months.
When the cost to short a stock annualizes above 10% (hard-to-borrow), the stock tends to underperform by roughly 3-4% per month. Short these expensive-to-borrow names for the next 4-12 weeks.
When a stock first lands on the SEC's Reg SHO Threshold List after being off it for at least a week, short it for the next 1-2 weeks before the forced-buy-in mechanism kicks in.
Explore Finra Daily Short Volume Spike on alphactor.ai
See which tickers this family is currently firing on, with live signals and rankings.