Short Interest Skills

Short interest skills surface short interest, daily short volume, failures to deliver, and short screens from the Ithaca archive. All four are backed by the community archive; FTD data originates from SEC Reg SHO reports.

Short interest is reported biweekly by exchanges; daily short volume is delayed. Always check freshness.lag_seconds and warnings in the provenance envelope before acting.

Skill summary

Skill ID	Tool name	Source	Runtime	Description
`short.interest`	`short_interest`	archive-community	interactive	Short interest + days to cover
`short.volume`	`short_volume`	archive-community	interactive	Daily short volume ratio
`short.ftd`	`short_ftd`	sec	interactive	Failures to deliver (Reg SHO)
`short.screener`	`short_screener`	archive-community	scan	Screen tickers by short interest metrics

short.interest

Short interest and days to cover for a ticker — the headline short-selling metric. Arguments

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
`symbol`	string	yes	—	Ticker symbol
`as_of`	ISO date	no	latest	Snapshot date
`lookback_reports`	int	no	`4`	Number of biweekly reports to return
`include_history`	bool	no	`false`	Return full history series

Source: archive-community Example

short_interest({ "symbol": "GME", "lookback_reports": 4 })

{
  "skill_id": "short.interest",
  "data": {
    "symbol": "GME", "as_of": "2025-06-24",
    "short_interest": 18200000, "short_pct_float": 0.041,
    "days_to_cover": 1.8, "avg_daily_volume": 10100000,
    "history": [
      { "report_date": "2025-06-10", "short_interest": 19100000, "days_to_cover": 2.1 },
      { "report_date": "2025-05-27", "short_interest": 20500000, "days_to_cover": 2.4 }
    ]
  },
  "provenance": { "source": "archive-community", "freshness": { "as_of": "2025-06-24T00:00:00Z", "lag_seconds": 259200 }, "cost": { "credits": 2, "tier": "basic" }, "warnings": ["short interest is biweekly; intra-period changes not captured"] }
}

short.volume

Daily short volume ratio — what fraction of daily volume was short sales. Arguments

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
`symbol`	string	yes	—	Ticker symbol
`from`	ISO date	no	`now - 30d`	Start date
`to`	ISO date	no	latest	End date
`granularity`	string	no	`daily`	`daily` or `weekly`

Source: archive-community Example

short_volume({ "symbol": "TSLA", "from": "2025-06-01" })

{
  "skill_id": "short.volume",
  "data": {
    "symbol": "TSLA",
    "series": [
      { "date": "2025-06-26", "short_volume": 18200000, "total_volume": 91000000, "short_ratio": 0.20 },
      { "date": "2025-06-25", "short_volume": 16400000, "total_volume": 88000000, "short_ratio": 0.19 },
      { "date": "2025-06-24", "short_volume": 21000000, "total_volume": 102000000, "short_ratio": 0.21 }
    ],
    "avg_short_ratio_30d": 0.205
  },
  "provenance": { "source": "archive-community", "freshness": { "as_of": "2025-06-27T20:00:00Z", "lag_seconds": 86400 }, "cost": { "credits": 2, "tier": "basic" }, "warnings": ["daily short volume delayed by 1 trading day"] }
}

short.ftd

Failures to deliver — Reg SHO threshold securities. Persistent FTDs can signal locates/borrow stress. Arguments

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
`symbol`	string	no	—	Filter by ticker (omit for threshold list)
`from`	ISO date	no	`now - 90d`	Start date
`to`	ISO date	no	latest	End date
`min_ftd`	int	no	—	Minimum failure quantity
`threshold_only`	bool	no	`false`	Only Reg SHO threshold securities
`limit`	int	no	`50`	Max results

Source: sec Example

short_ftd({ "symbol": "GME", "from": "2025-04-01" })

{
  "skill_id": "short.ftd",
  "data": {
    "symbol": "GME",
    "failures": [
      { "date": "2025-05-14", "quantity": 125000, "price": 28.40, "threshold": true },
      { "date": "2025-05-13", "quantity": 88000, "price": 27.90, "threshold": false }
    ],
    "total_ftd_30d": 412000
  },
  "provenance": { "source": "sec", "freshness": { "as_of": "2025-06-15T00:00:00Z", "lag_seconds": 1296000 }, "cost": { "credits": 2, "tier": "basic" }, "warnings": ["FTD reports are released biweekly with ~2 week lag"] }
}

short.screener

Screen tickers by short interest metrics across a universe. Runs under the scan profile (900 s). Arguments

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
`universe`	string	no	`all`	`sp500`, `russell2000`, `nasdaq100`, `all`
`min_short_pct_float`	float	no	—	Minimum short % of float (decimal)
`max_short_pct_float`	float	no	—	Maximum short % of float
`min_days_to_cover`	float	no	—	Minimum days to cover
`min_short_volume_ratio`	float	no	—	Minimum daily short volume ratio
`include_ftd`	bool	no	`false`	Only tickers with recent FTDs
`min_ftd`	int	no	—	Minimum FTD quantity if `include_ftd`
`sort_by`	string	no	`short_pct_float`	`short_pct_float`, `days_to_cover`, `short_interest`, `ftd`
`sort_dir`	string	no	`desc`	`asc` or `desc`
`limit`	int	no	`50`	Max results

Source: archive-community Example

short_screener({ "universe": "russell2000", "min_short_pct_float": 0.15, "min_days_to_cover": 5, "sort_by": "days_to_cover", "limit": 10 })

{
  "skill_id": "short.screener",
  "data": {
    "as_of": "2025-06-24",
    "matches": [
      { "symbol": "BBBYQ", "short_pct_float": 0.62, "days_to_cover": 18.4, "short_interest": 42000000, "has_ftd": true },
      { "symbol": "SNDL", "short_pct_float": 0.28, "days_to_cover": 12.1, "short_interest": 18000000, "has_ftd": false }
    ],
    "total": 2
  },
  "provenance": { "source": "archive-community", "freshness": { "as_of": "2025-06-24T00:00:00Z", "lag_seconds": 259200 }, "cost": { "credits": 5, "tier": "basic" }, "warnings": [] }
}

Combine short.screener with congress.screener or insider.activity to find crowded shorts with unusual political or insider activity — a common setup for short-squeeze research.

Short Interest Skills

Skill summary

short.interest

short.volume

short.ftd

short.screener

Next steps

Skills Overview

MCP Tools

​Skill summary

​short.interest

​short.volume

​short.ftd

​short.screener

​Next steps

Skills Overview

MCP Tools

Skill summary

short.interest

short.volume

short.ftd

short.screener

Next steps