Methodology & data sources
What every number on Strota is, where it comes from, how often it updates, and what it cannot tell you.
This page exists so that a journalist, researcher or analyst can verify a figure before publishing it. If you need a number in a specific format, see the data hub or how to cite Strota.
What Strota is
Strota is a free, public dashboard tracking where institutional money is flowing in Indian markets. It assembles signals that are normally spread across several paywalled tools: FII/DII positioning, F&O open-interest buildup, bulk and block deals with named counterparties, delivery behaviour, insider and promoter filings, option chains, and a post-market synthesis. Data refreshes every minute during market hours.
Source classes
| Class | What we take from it | Vintage |
|---|---|---|
| Official exchange archives (NSE/BSE) | End-of-day derivatives data: open interest, OI change, price change, PCR, max pain, option chain settlements, index and stock volumes | End of session |
| F&O participant-wise open interest | Positioning split across FII, DII, proprietary and client, in index futures, index options, stock futures and stock options | End of session |
| Large-deal disclosures | Bulk deals and block deals, including named counterparties where the exchange disclosure names them | Published after the session |
| Regulatory disclosures (PIT, SAST) | Insider and promoter buying or selling filings, with the named filer | As filed |
| Official index constituent data | Index membership and sector classification used for every universe and sector cut | On reconstitution |
| Live quote feeds | Intraday prices, volumes and index levels during market hours | Intraday, minute refresh |
| Third-party feeds | Sector indices, macro references (India VIX, crude, USDINR, gold, global indices) and news headlines | Intraday |
Where a figure is reported by a third party rather than computed from exchange data, we say so on the page that carries it. We distinguish data (what the exchange or regulator published) from analysis (our interpretation of it).
Definitions of derived fields
| Field | Definition |
|---|---|
| FII/DII net (cash) | Gross buy minus gross sell for the participant class, in the cash market, for the session named on the page. This is a net flow, not a holding or a position. |
| Long buildup | Price up and open interest up over the session: new positions added on the long side. |
| Short buildup | Price down and open interest up: new positions added on the short side. |
| Long unwinding | Price down and open interest down: existing longs closed. |
| Short covering | Price up and open interest down: existing shorts closed. |
| Streak | Consecutive sessions on which a direction (buy or sell, long or short) held for the same series. Streaks are read off the daily series, not modelled. |
| Delivery percentage | Quantity delivered as a share of traded quantity, from exchange end-of-day data. |
| Delivery spike | Delivery percentage for the session above a fixed multiple of that stock's own trailing average, computed on the same series. |
| Put-call ratio (PCR) | Total put open interest divided by total call open interest for the expiry named on the page. |
| Max pain | The strike at which the total value of open option contracts at expiry would be lowest for option holders, computed from the live chain. |
| Smart Money signals | Deterministic rules, each looking at two or three underlying data points, firing when a specific configuration is present (for example: heavy FII short plus a multi-session covering streak). No machine learning, no language model, no black box. |
Update cadence
- Intraday, every minute during market hours: prices, volumes, index levels, option chains and the derived intraday signals built from them.
- After the session closes: end-of-day derivatives data, participant-wise open interest, delivery percentages, FII/DII cash figures.
- After the exchanges publish them: bulk and block deals, insider and promoter filings.
Every page that carries a number includes an "as of" line with the session date the number belongs to, so an end-of-day figure is never presented as if it were live.
What we do not claim
- Participant-wise open interest is an end-of-day public aggregate. It is a direction and a magnitude, not a named institution's book.
- A bulk or block deal is a completed trade. It is not evidence of intent, and we do not assert one.
- Streaks describe history. They are not forecasts.
- Strota publishes information built from public data. It is not investment advice, and it is not a recommendation to buy or sell anything.
- Third-party macro and sector references may be delayed or revised by the provider.
Corrections and data quality
If a figure on Strota looks wrong, tell us. The data surfaces we can correct are corrected at the source and re-published; corrections to editorial pieces are handled under our editorial standards and corrections policy.
Reproduce and cite
You may reproduce Strota charts, tables and screenshots, and quote our numbers, with attribution. The citation format, canonical URLs and dataset naming convention are on the citation page. Machine-readable endpoints are listed on the data hub.