Regulation SHO took effect January 3, 2005, and provides a new regulatory framework governing short selling of securities. It was designed with the objective of simplifying and modernizing short sale regulation and providing controls where they are most needed. At the conclusion of each settlement day, data is provided on securities in which: 1) there are at least 10,000 shares in aggregate failed deliveries for the security for five consecutive settlement days, and 2) these failures constitute at least 0.5% of the issuer’s total shares outstanding. SEC Regulation SHO, under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, mandates that, if a clearing agent has had a fail-to-deliver position for 13 consecutive settlement days, that clearing agent, and the broker/dealer it clears for, must purchase securities to close out its fail to deliver position.
BUYINS.NET has automated the collection of this data from NYSE, AMEX, NASDAQ, OTCBB and PINKSHEETS every night and uses counters to track which stocks are about to have forced covers.