Market Data

Three Signals. One Source of Truth.

Volatility, Velocity, and Short Interest — three proprietary signal families derived from the U.S. securities lending market. Validated across 8.8 million observations and six years of data. Delivered every trading day before the open.



Live Market Snapshot

All U.S. Equities Volatility — 60 Trading Days

Market-capitalization-weighted securities lending rate volatility across the full U.S. equity universe. Updated daily from Tidal’s underlying transaction data.

Hover the chart to view daily values. This is one of three signal families Tidal produces.



Signal Architecture

From Transaction Data to Daily Signal

1.2 million daily lending transactions are aggregated across 100+ reporting entities, then processed into three signal families measuring distinct dimensions of borrowing pressure.

U.S. SECURITIES LENDING MARKET 1.2M daily transactions 100+ reporting entities PROPRIETARY METHODOLOGY aggregation + transform VOLATILITY rate dispersion VELOCITY rate-of-change SHORT INTEREST shorting pressure INSTITUTIONAL PORTFOLIOS risk · alpha sizing · overlay



Signal 01

Volatility

Measures dispersion in securities lending rates at the security level. High Volatility identifies unstable borrow conditions — a precursor to elevated drawdown risk and forward return underperformance.

-0.049
MDD IC
-0.69
Info Ratio
-1.44%
Excess MDD
21-Day Forward Return by Volatility Quintile
Low-VOL securities (Q1) earn +1.33% over 21 days. High-VOL securities (Q5) earn near zero.
Source: Tidal Markets research, 7.5M obs · 2020–2026 · p<0.0001



21-Day Forward Return by Velocity Quintile
High-Velocity securities (Q5) underperform by ~92 basis points vs. Low-Velocity (Q1).
Source: Tidal Markets research, |VRR| · 7.5M obs · 2020–2026 · p<0.0001

Signal 02

Velocity

Measures the rate-of-change in lending market activity for each security. Velocity captures acceleration in borrowing pressure that Volatility alone cannot — a complementary, force-multiplier signal.

-0.035
MDD IC
-0.58
Info Ratio
-1.04%
Excess 21d Return



Signal 03

Short Interest

Direct measure of institutional shorting pressure derived from lending activity — the strongest single-signal predictor of large drawdowns in Tidal's research. The signal works across every institutional cap tier, with the strongest effect in Mega cap.

2.97x
Drawdown Odds Q5/Q1
-0.189
MDD IC
-1.35
Info Ratio
Short Interest alpha exposures concentrate in Small and Mid-cap securities. For Mega and Large-cap, the signal is most effective as a risk overlay rather than an alpha source.
Q5 vs Q1 Drawdown >10% Odds Ratio
High Short Interest predicts elevated drawdown across every institutional cap tier.
Source: Tidal Markets research, within-tier · 7.2M obs · 2020–2026 · p<0.0001



The Research Behind the Signals

Every signal in Tidal's program has been pre-specified, statistically tested, and validated across regimes.

8.8M
Observations
7,103
U.S. Equities
1,617
Trading Dates
6 yr
Validation Period
5
Cap Tiers Tested
11
Sectors Covered



The Three Together

Each signal is independent. Together, they compound.

Volatility, Velocity, and Short Interest measure three structurally distinct dimensions of lending market pressure. Volatility captures rate dispersion. Velocity captures the rate-of-change. Short Interest captures the directional pressure of institutional shorts.

In Tidal's research, Volatility and Short Interest are nearly orthogonal (Spearman r = -0.17). Volatility and Velocity move together moderately (r = 0.43) but capture different temporal slices of borrowing stress. The result: securities ranking high on all three signals (the "triple-high" cohort) underperform the broader universe by 5–7x what any single signal predicts.

This compounding behavior strengthens post-2022, in the rate environment institutional investors are navigating today. The signals are most powerful as a system.

Signal Cross-Correlation
Spearman rank correlation between signals.
VOL VELO SI VOL VELO SI 1.00 0.43 -0.17 0.43 1.00 0.06 -0.17 0.06 1.00
Inverse Positive



Request the full research documentation.

Methodology, evidence tables, and event studies for each signal family — shared with prospective clients during evaluation.



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