From the whole settlement file down to the screened list, one rule at a time
Answered against 22 years of US equities and 12 years of US options data and published with the query that produced it. This result is stored as of 2026-08-24, from Short Squeeze Candidates This Week.
| label | names |
|---|---|
| Every name in the settlement file | 22339 |
| Liquid: five million shares a day, no leveraged funds | 663 |
| Crowded: five or more days to cover | 90 |
| Rising: a positive move over the price window | 55 |
- Rows × columns
- 4 × 2
- Computed
- Completeness
- No missing values
- Source
- US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data
- Licence
- Strasmore terms · free, no signup
What each column holds
| Column | Type | Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
label |
text | 4 distinct values | |
names |
number | 55 to 22,339 |
Computed from Strasmore's warehouse of US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data. Equity prices are delayed; options greeks and implied volatility are end-of-day. This result is stored, not recomputed on load — it is exactly the numbers that were returned on , and the query below is what returned them.
the exact SQL behind every number
WITH latest AS (
SELECT max(settlement_date) AS d FROM global_markets.stocks_short_interest
),
sessions AS (
SELECT toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) AS session
FROM global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs
WHERE ticker = 'SPY'
AND window_start >= now() - INTERVAL 20 DAY
AND toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
+ toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) >= 570
AND toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
+ toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) < 960
GROUP BY session
HAVING count() >= 380
ORDER BY session DESC
LIMIT 6
),
reported AS (
SELECT ticker, days_to_cover, avg_daily_volume
FROM global_markets.stocks_short_interest
WHERE settlement_date = (SELECT d FROM latest)
),
liquid AS (
SELECT ticker, days_to_cover
FROM reported
WHERE avg_daily_volume >= 5000000
AND days_to_cover IS NOT NULL
AND ticker NOT IN ('SPCX')
AND ticker NOT IN ('KORU','SOXL','SOXS','TQQQ','SQQQ','NVDL','NVDS','NVD','TSLL','TSLQ','TSLZ','SPXL','SPXS','UPRO','SPXU','LABU','LABD','FAS','FAZ','TNA','TZA','YINN','YANG','UDOW','SDOW','BOIL','KOLD','UCO','SCO','USD','SSO','SDS','QLD','QID','ERX','ERY','DRN','DRV','CURE','SOXY','MUU','SNXX','UVXY','SVXY','UVIX','SVIX','BULZ','WEBL','WEBS','DPST','DRIP','GUSH','AGQ','ZSL','BITX','ETHU','MSTX','MSTU','CONL','DUST','JNUG','JDST','NUGT')
AND ticker NOT IN (SELECT ticker FROM global_markets.stocks_splits
WHERE execution_date BETWEEN today() - 60 AND today())
),
crowded AS (
SELECT ticker FROM liquid WHERE days_to_cover >= 5
),
tape AS (
SELECT ticker,
toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) AS session,
argMax(close, window_start) AS rth_close
FROM global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs
WHERE ticker IN (SELECT ticker FROM crowded)
AND toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) IN (SELECT session FROM sessions)
AND toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
+ toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) >= 570
AND toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
+ toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) < 960
GROUP BY ticker, session
),
rising AS (
SELECT ticker,
round((argMax(rth_close, session) / argMin(rth_close, session) - 1) * 100, 1) AS return_5d_pct
FROM tape
GROUP BY ticker
HAVING count() = 6 AND return_5d_pct > 0
),
tally AS (
SELECT (SELECT count() FROM reported) AS all_names,
(SELECT count() FROM liquid) AS liquid_names,
(SELECT count() FROM crowded) AS crowded_names,
(SELECT count() FROM rising) AS rising_names
)
SELECT step.1 AS label, step.2 AS names
FROM (
SELECT arrayJoin([
('Every name in the settlement file', all_names),
('Liquid: five million shares a day, no leveraged funds', liquid_names),
('Crowded: five or more days to cover', crowded_names),
('Rising: a positive move over the price window', rising_names)]) AS step
FROM tally
)
Run your own version of this
The same 22 years of US equities and 12 years of options data are queryable in SQL or plain English. A free account runs 100 queries a day and takes no card.
More from this analysisShort Squeeze Candidates This Week
Squeeze-shaped mechanics: crowded shorts among liquid names, with a rising price
ranking 12×4
→
Every past screened name, by what it did over the next 30 days
ranking 6×3
→
Liquid names at 5+ and 10+ days to cover, settlement by settlement
series 12×4
→
The screened names ranked by short interest against shares outstanding (not float)
table 10×5
→
Every input behind this screen, and how many days old it is
series 3×3
→
Highest days to cover among liquid names: 5M average-volume floor
ranking 12×4
→
See all 2,170 queries →