About
Alternative data, built like institutional research.
Tidal Markets is an alternative data provider focused on a single discipline — turning the U.S. securities lending market into validated risk and alpha signals, and next-day rate predictions, for institutional investors.
Who Tidal Is
One discipline. Three signal families. Two predictive models. Six years of validation.
Tidal Markets produces alternative data derived exclusively from the U.S. securities lending market. The firm does not work across multiple data categories or try to be a generalist provider — it is built around a single discipline, applied at depth.
From 1.2 million daily lending transactions across more than 100 reporting entities, Tidal produces three signal families: Volatility measures dispersion in lending rates at the security level. Velocity measures rate-of-change. Short Interest measures real-time institutional shorting pressure. Each signal captures a structurally distinct dimension of borrowing market behavior. WaveCast extends this foundation into prediction — next-day direction and rate magnitude forecasts for active special stocks, built on the same six-year dataset.
The result is a research program with the depth of focus institutional buyers expect from internal quant teams — pre-specified test designs, multi-regime validation, and methodology documentation grounded in the actual statistical machinery, not marketing benchmarks.
Research Philosophy
Three methodological commitments.
Tidal’s signal program is built on three commitments that distinguish institutional research from generic alt-data testing. Each is applied consistently across every signal in the program.
Pre-Specified Test Designs
Hypotheses are declared and documented before testing — not chosen retroactively to fit the data. This is how academic finance research is run; it is rarely how alt-data marketing is run.
In practice: the Volatility, Velocity, and Short Interest signal designs were pre-specified with target horizons (1, 5, 10, 21 days) and target outcomes (forward return, max drawdown) declared before any testing began. Null results are reported alongside positive ones.
Multi-Regime Validation
A signal that worked once in a single market environment is a curve-fit, not a discovery. Tidal validates every signal across multiple market regimes — separately, not as one pooled period.
In practice: every signal is tested in the pre-2022 sub-period (low rates) and the post-2022 sub-period (rate normalization) independently. Signals that fail in either regime are not commercialized.
Within-Tier & Within-Sector Analysis
Pooled tests confound signal strength with cap-tier and sector concentration. Within-segment analysis controls for these confounds and tells institutional buyers where the signal actually works.
In practice: the Short Interest cap-tier analysis revealed alpha concentrates in Small and Mid cap; the same signal acts as a risk overlay only at Mega and Large. This restriction is disclosed publicly on the product page.
Validation at Scale
Every signal validated across institutional-grade evidence.
The research evidence behind every Tidal signal — applied consistently across the U.S. equity universe and six years of trading history.
Operating Standards
How Tidal operates with clients.
Operational standards that match the research discipline behind the signals.
Delivery Discipline
Data is delivered to a per-client AWS S3 bucket at 7:45 AM EST each trading day. Short Interest is additionally refreshed every 15 minutes intraday between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM EST. Coverage extends across 8,000+ U.S. equities, 11 sectors, and 140+ industries.
Methodology Transparency
Full methodology documentation — including test designs, evidence tables, and sub-period decompositions — is made available to evaluating clients before any commercial commitment. Tidal does not ask buyers to take signal claims on faith.
Direct Researcher Access
Clients interact directly with the research team — not with an account management layer interposed between buyer and the people who built the signals. Methodology questions, integration support, and ongoing refinement all flow through one channel.
Engage with the research.
Request methodology documentation, sample data files, and direct access to the research team.
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS PROPRIETARY TO TIDAL MARKETS LLC AND DESIGNATED THIRD PARTIES. THESE ILLUSTRATIONS MAY NOT BE COPIED, EDITED, OR REDISTRIBUTED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF TIDAL MARKETS LLC. ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN DOES NOT CONSTITUTE OR IMPLY INVESTMENT ADVICE BY TIDAL MARKETS LLC OR ANY REPRESENTATIVES THEREOF. TIDAL MARKETS LLC DOES NOT GUARANTEE THE QUALITY, ACCURACY, OR COMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN. ALL MATERIALS PROVIDED ARE FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED FOR TRADING PURPOSES, NOR SHOULD BE CONSTRUED OR INTERPRETED AS A COURSE OF ACTION. TIDAL MARKETS LLC IS NOT RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE IN ANY FORM TO ANY READER, FIRM OR CORPORATION, FOR ANY DAMAGES OR LOSSES ARISING FROM ANY USE OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN. PAST PERFORMANCE IS NOT INDICATIVE OF FUTURE RESULTS.