Fintel-data — Short-Selling Data and Institutional Holdings Query Skill

Skill Overview

Fintel-data is a read-only market intelligence query skill that uses the Fintel REST API (or the official MCP server) to retrieve institutional-level data, including short interest, securities lending rates, fails-to-deliver (FTD), 13F institutional holdings, insider transactions, and analyst price targets.

Use Cases

1. Short-selling analysis and short-squeeze signal research: Query a stock’s short interest, days to cover, borrow rate, available shares to borrow, and FTD records. High borrowing costs combined with declining share availability are classic short-squeeze watch signals—the skill presents raw data, while you draw your own conclusions.
2. Institutional holdings and insider due diligence: Before buying, use 13F data to see “who is holding” the stock (institutional holder lists derived from SEC 13F filings), and use Form 3/4/5 data to track insider purchases, sales, and option exercises.
3. Earnings season and dividend tracking: Batch-query analyst price targets, buy/sell ratings, revenue and EPS estimates, historical earnings and earnings surprises, as well as upcoming earnings and dividend calendars (supporting either individual stocks or market-wide windows).

Core Features

1. Exclusive short-selling datasets: This is where Fintel stands out from most data providers—short interest reports (trailing year), securities lending fees and share availability, daily short-sale volume, and SEC fails-to-deliver records (U.S. stocks only). It also directly provides derived metrics such as % of float and days to cover.
2. Data derived from SEC regulatory filings: Institutional ownership comes from SEC 13F filings, while insider transactions come from Forms 3/4/5. Data can be organized into tables by holder, share-count changes, and date, with automatic classification of purchases, sales, and exercises.
3. Comprehensive security and market data: Supports security lookup by ticker/CUSIP/ISIN/FIGI; provides analyst price targets and ratings, earnings forecasts, EOD historical prices, the latest price and 52-week highs/lows, dividend and earnings histories, various calendars, leaderboards, and watchlist and alert queries.

Frequently Asked Questions

What prerequisites are required to use this skill?

A Fintel API key is required (available through subscription plans at fintel.io). The skill reads the key in sequence from the FINTEL_API_KEY environment variable, the .env file in the current directory, and the .env file at the root of the Git repository. Queries are metered and billed by account, so do not poll repeatedly. The skill is designed to be read-only and only calls GET endpoints; it does not create stock lists or subscribe to alerts.

Why does querying short interest return a 403?

The short interest dataset must be enabled separately in your Fintel account. A 403 means that the current key does not have permission to access that dataset, not that the query is incorrect. Securities lending rates, short-sale volume, and other datasets also have their own access requirements. In addition, the leaderboard service occasionally returns 503 not_available; simply try again later, as this does not mean that no data is available.

Can it directly tell me what to buy or when a short squeeze will occur?

No. The skill is designed to present facts and data only—for example, short interest as a percentage of the float, borrowing cost trends, and the direction of insider buying and selling. It does not provide trading recommendations, price targets, or short-squeeze predictions. All query results identify their data sources (Fintel and its underlying SEC 13F, Forms 3/4/5, and NYSE/NASDAQ short-sale reports). Supported markets are addressed by country code (such as us/AAPL), with U.S. stocks as the default.