SPY Short Volume
State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) operates in the Financial Services sector, specifically the Asset Management industry, with a market capitalization near $819.23B, listed on AMEX, carrying a beta of 1.01 to the broader market. SPY is the best-recognized and oldest US listed ETF and typically tops rankings for largest AUM and greatest trading volume. public since 1993-01-22.
Short volume measures the number of shares sold short on a given day as reported by FINRA. Tracking short volume relative to total volume helps identify unusual bearish sentiment or short-squeeze potential.
- Latest Date
- 2026-08-21
- Short Volume
- 9.4M
- Total Volume
- 16.9M
- Short %
- 55.70%
- 30-Day Avg Short %
- 59.04%
Showing 30 days of FINRA short volume data for State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF.
Learn how short volume is reported and how to read the data →
SPY most-active contracts
| Type | Strike | Expiration | Volume | OI | IV | Bid | Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PUT | $765.00 | Aug 24, 2026 | 92.8K | 14.2K | 6.5% | $1.14 | $1.15 |
| CALL | $766.00 | Aug 24, 2026 | 69.1K | 2.3K | 6.3% | $2.02 | $2.03 |
| PUT | $766.00 | Aug 24, 2026 | 64.5K | 5.5K | 6.3% | $1.50 | $1.51 |
| CALL | $767.00 | Aug 24, 2026 | 55.1K | 2.1K | 6.2% | $1.48 | $1.49 |
| PUT | $764.00 | Aug 24, 2026 | 50.3K | 1.3K | 6.7% | $0.86 | $0.87 |
| CALL | $768.00 | Aug 24, 2026 | 43.4K | 4.3K | 6.0% | $1.04 | $1.05 |
| CALL | $770.00 | Aug 24, 2026 | 42.3K | 3.4K | 5.9% | $0.46 | $0.47 |
| PUT | $760.00 | Aug 24, 2026 | 36.4K | 3.7K | 7.7% | $0.29 | $0.30 |
| PUT | $763.00 | Aug 24, 2026 | 35.4K | 2.2K | 6.9% | $0.65 | $0.66 |
| CALL | $769.00 | Aug 24, 2026 | 34.4K | 2.3K | 6.0% | $0.70 | $0.71 |
Top 10 contracts from the institutional-grade nightly options scan; ranked by volume within the broader S&P 500/400/600 + ETF universe.
Frequently asked SPY short volume questions
- What is the daily SPY short volume?
- As of Aug 21, 2026, State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) short volume is 9.4M shares against 16.9M total reported volume, or 55.70% short-side. Short volume measures shares sold short during the day; it is flow, not inventory.
- How is SPY short volume reported?
- FINRA publishes the Daily Short Sale Volume File for trades reported to FINRA TRFs and the FINRA/Nasdaq ADF on a T+1 basis. The headline figure is the count of shares that printed at the short-sale or short-exempt tick across all reporting venues for the symbol; each exchange separately publishes its own daily short-sale data file.
- What does SPY short volume tell options traders?
- Daily short-sale flow is one input that helps disambiguate dealer-hedging activity from directional bear flow when the chain shows fresh customer call inventory. It is not a clean MM-only proxy: the headline number mixes directional shorting, options-MM delta-hedging, ETF-creation arbitrage, and convertible-arb hedging. Cross-check against gamma-exposure and OI changes for a cleaner read.