In this edition, we explore Q1 2025 securities lending trends, spotlight APAC’s standout 27% revenue growth, introduce EquiLend’s Short Squeeze Score, examine corporate bond short interest signals and highlight Korean short selling performance.

The first quarter of 2025 was a period of heightened volatility and uncertainty for global markets, driven by a confluence of macroeconomic and geo-political factors.

Navigating short interest in the corporate bond market can be filled with risk. The lack of transparency and public reporting forces investors to use limited tools while today’s macroeconomic volatility provides prime conditions for short selling.

In Q1 2025, the lending of APAC equities bolstered revenue for the rest of the securities finance market by reporting a 29% increase in year-over-year revenue of $569 million.

EquiLend Short Squeeze Score | Designed to provide early warning signals of potential short squeezes, using both comprehensive securities finance data and social media sentiment data.

After aggressively hiking interest rates to a 10-year high of 5.5%, the U.S. Federal Reserve started 2024 in a holding-pattern of sorts. Inflation measures were cooling, but the American consumer was still feeling the pain of high prices.

With two months now elapsed since the 2024 U.S. presidential election, policy shifts planned by the incoming administration have begun to come into focus, and broader financial markets have reacted in kind. While the implications of a potentially dramatic shift are only beginning to be realized, there are key signals and themes which can already be observed within the securities finance market.