Methodology

Two sources, two measures

ASIC short position reports are the source for our main % short figure, rankings, and company histories. They show reported outstanding short positions, published four business days after the trade date. We label this T+4.

ASX gross short sales measure short-selling activity during a single trading day. These reports are available the next business day, labelled T+1. Gross sales do not tell you how many short positions remain open.

More on the difference between ASIC and ASX data

How to read the figures

% short

Reported short positions as a percentage of securities on issue, using the source's denominator. Securities may be ordinary shares, fund units or other instruments.

Gross short sales, % of capital

The day's gross short sales as a percentage of issued capital. This is a daily activity measure, separate from % short.

7-day and 30-day changes

The difference between reported percentages, in percentage points. A move from 2.00% to 2.50% is +0.50 percentage points, not a 0.50% increase. The leaderboard compares the latest percentage with the nearest available value on or before 7 or 30 calendar days earlier, using its 60-day lookback. A dash means no baseline is available. These are calendar days, not a count of reports.

Ticker history and missing values

The history table shows the dates returned for the requested year, including dates that only have ASX gross sales. A dash means position data is unavailable in the processed feed for that date. Recorded ranges use available percentage values, not an assumed complete year of observations.

Ticker comparisons use the latest position date and the nearest available percentage on or before the calendar-day target, at most 7 days earlier. Longer gaps produce an unavailable comparison. The baseline and latest dates are shown beside each change.

An active security omitted from a successfully processed ASIC report is treated as implied zero. Our ingest stores that zero for the dates it processes. An API failure or a date without processed report coverage is unavailable, rather than zero. Older omissions may not have been backfilled in the processed feed. Revisions and changes in the on-issue denominator can affect comparisons.

Rankings include ETFs, stapled securities and debt instruments where present in the source. Instrument labels use explicit wording in the supplied security description or name; an unclassified security keeps a neutral label.

Updates and checks

We check for new reports on business days and refresh cached pages after processing them. Check the source date beside each figure; neither feed is live.

Processing checks cover missing or empty files, malformed ticker codes, duplicate rows, and stale dates. Amended files and processing errors are corrected by reprocessing the source.

Limits of the data

Reports can be incomplete or revised. ASIC relies on submissions from short sellers and cannot verify every report. Our processing checks cannot resolve errors in the underlying submissions.

Short positions can reflect hedging or arbitrage as well as a view on a company's prospects. These figures do not explain why a position exists and are not a buy or sell signal. This site provides general information, not financial advice.