Which Settlement Date Does the Short Interest Number on Your Screen Describe
Three Clocks Sit Behind One Short Interest Field Open a US equity on almost any broker page and you will find a line labeled short interest: a share count, often a percentage of float beside it, sometimes a days-to-cover figure. The field sits next to the last sale and the session volume, both of which update in seconds, and it quietly inherits their air of currency. It should not. The short interest field is a photograph of a settlement date that has already passed, developed and released on a calendar FINRA publishes a year in advance. On September 22, 2026, the most recent FINRA short interest figure a US screen can be showing comes from the August 31 reporting settlement date. Member firms filed it by 6:00 p.m. Eastern on September 2. FINRA released it on September 10. The next figure, capturing September 15, does not reach the public until September 24. So for twelve calendar days, the field labeled short interest has been describing the last Monday in August. That is not a ...