When the U.S. and Israel began strikes on Iran on February 28th, 2026, it triggered what the International Energy Agency has since described as the “greatest global energy security challenge in history”.

Market turbulence has a way of exposing what’s signal and what’s noise. Two months ago, amid heightened market volatility, EquiLend’s Predicted Short Interest went live and with multiple reporting cycles now closed, we now have our first real opportunity to evaluate how those early estimates stack up against subsequently released exchange and FINRA data. 

Understanding short interest is critical, yet traditional short interest data has significant limitations as it is infrequent and heavily delayed.

2025 was a defining year for AI-linked equities. Markets aggressively rewarded companies positioned across the entire value chain, from compute infrastructure and semiconductors to enterprise services and quantum technology.

The curtain has closed on 2025 — and what a year it was for global securities finance.