Options flow on MGK tells a different story to the lending market. While short positions jumped 384% in a week, call buyers are flooding in — pushing the put-call ratio to a two-year statistical extreme.
MGK's put-call ratio hit 0.274 on June 16. That is 2.45 standard deviations above its 20-day mean of 0.242. For context, the ratio has sat in a remarkably tight band — between 0.229 and 0.257 — for most of the past month. This week's move breaks that pattern cleanly. Call volume is dominant. Options traders are not positioned defensively.
Short interest on the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF rose sharply this week. Shares short climbed from roughly 188,000 to 910,000 — a 384% jump over five trading sessions. At 1.16% of free float, the absolute level remains low. This is an ETF with deep liquidity and a massive share lending pool.
Availability confirms there is no stress in the borrow market. At 985% — nearly ten times the shares already borrowed — lenders have ample supply. Cost to borrow rose 52% week-on-week to 0.80%. That is still among the cheapest borrows available for any listed security. The short sellers here are not paying up to express their view.
The divergence is the story. On one side: short positions that quintupled in a week. On the other: options buyers piling into calls at a rate not seen in the past month. MGK trades at $88.29, down 1.1% on Monday but up 1.6% over the past week.
The ORTEX short score sits at 29.6 — moderate, and stable. It has ranged between 27.4 and 30.3 over the past ten sessions. No extreme here, just a quiet drift higher since early June.
MGK holds the largest US mega-cap growth names. Short positions in the ETF are often used as hedges rather than directional bets — a common technique among institutional managers holding the underlying stocks long while selling the wrapper short.
What to watch: Whether the options PCR retreats toward its 0.242 mean, or continues to climb — and whether the short interest spike proves sticky or reverts as quickly as it appeared.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open MGK on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
