NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com)–Sungard Institutional Brokerage Inc., part of the data processing and software company, is offering daily aggregates and weekly industry-level measures derived from stock borrowing data. In tests, these track the short interest numbers put out by exchanges once a month.
Sungard Securities Borrow Indices cover the NYSE, Nasdaq and the value and growth components of the S&P 500, 400 and 600 daily. A weekly report goes into greater detail, indicating industries with the highest share borrowing and those subject to the largest increases and decreases in borrowed shares over the previous week.
For instance, construction materials, gas utilities and airlines had the highest SBI among Large-Cap 500 companies in the Oct. 11 report. For NYSE and Nasdaq, this newsletter showed a decline in SBI since mid-September. The weekly reports also display borrowing of exchange-traded fund shares.
Raw data for the measures come from brokerages and banks that use Sungard's Loanet system, an accounting service for securities lending. That means SBI misses stock borrowing that happens elsewhere. But the indicators catch well over 50% of activity, according to Jay Indovino, chief executive of Sungard Institutional Brokerage in St. Louis.
Trend Spotting
Users can spot trends as they unfold and identify short positions being taken almost immediately, said Charles Comer, managing director for Sungard Institutional Brokerage, New York. He emphasized that a lot can go on in a month, and this information gives a significant edge to a trader or hedge fund.
