Is there a value in the real-time short interest data? If so, who provides such data? I can only find real-time short interest forecast (a paid service).
Sure there's value in knowing what the short interest is in any individual stock. If you know stocks that have an extremely high short interest and monitor them for unusual volume on an up move... jump in.
In some circumstances the high short interest is a negative bias but in some it is part of a corporate event or hedge.
Yeah they're required to file twice monthly now. It used to be once a month. This is a good link (below) to find stocks like this, then go back and look at their charts and see how they move. I have a few set up on an alert basis set to inform me if their price hits a certain level (way above current levels), ie the short squeeze is occurring, and then jump in short on the way back down if shares can be located. As a whole, there's usually a good reason so many shares are short. The company likely sucks, is way overpriced, or it has been pumped by various "financial" sites. http://www.highshortinterest.com/nasdaq/
"As a hedge". I know that exists, but no one has ever really explained to me how option MM's incorporate that in their operations. If you have a link to read about how that works, I'd be very interested because I know its important and not the kind of thing an average retail player understands.
I knew I had this link buried somewhere, it took me a minute to find it. This might help you. Be sure and read the second link here too from the same site, it spells some things out. Obviously they are trying to sell their system, but the data is good. https://volumebot.com/?s=AAPL&volumebot_duration_60 https://volumebot.com/why-short-volume-is-important/
I was not referring to a MM hedging their book. you buy 100 50D puts and they sell stock, as that order flow is still bearish and needs to be closed at some point. I was referring a long to a convertible bond, Warrant, preferred or stock swap from a take over and other situations where the short in the stock is not a bearish bet but a hedge to lock in a trade.
The brokers should have real-time data, and I suspect their own trading desk is taking advantage of it...