IGM, the iShares Expanded Tech Sector ETF, has bounced back from its early-June sell-off — but options traders haven't fully stood down.
The recovery is real. IGM closed Tuesday at $161.03, up 2.7% on the week and 4.4% over the past month. That partially retraces the brutal 8.3% weekly drop flagged in the previous note, and the 7.6% single-day collapse on June 4 now looks like the low-water mark rather than the start of a longer slide. Tuesday did see a 2.5% pullback, so the path higher hasn't been clean.
The hedging signal that dominated the last note has eased but not normalised. The put/call ratio is running at 0.18, still about 1.7 standard deviations above its 20-day average of 0.12. That keeps it near the top end of the past year's range — the 52-week high is 0.22 — even as the absolute level remains low by most ETF standards. For context, the PCR was below 0.06 through April and early May. The shift since the June 4 event has been persistent: the ratio has held above 0.13 every session since. Options positioning has become more defensive than usual, but hasn't crossed into outright bearish territory.
Borrow conditions are relaxed, and short interest tells a story of no real conviction on either side. Availability has actually loosened significantly this week — moving to 850% from around 618% last Tuesday — meaning there is roughly eight times as much stock available to borrow as is currently lent out. That's well inside the comfortable zone. Cost to borrow, at 0.92%, is down about 10% on the week and near the lower end of its 30-day range. Short interest itself is minimal at just 0.24% of float, down 8% on Tuesday alone. The ORTEX short score has drifted lower to 30.3 from a recent high of 34.0 on June 4, consistent with pressure easing. None of this points to meaningful short-side activity — the lending market is loose and short sellers are not pressing.
The institutional picture is broadly stable. Morgan Stanley remains the largest disclosed holder at roughly 3.1% of shares. The most notable Q1 move was a significant trim from JPMorgan Chase, which cut its position by nearly 1.3 million shares — though this likely reflects broker-dealer rebalancing rather than a directional call. Most other top holders made only marginal adjustments. The ETF distributed a $0.068 dividend per share earlier this month, a modest income contribution at the current price.
The setup heading into the rest of June is one of partial normalisation: price has recovered, the borrow market is loose, and short interest is negligible. What remains elevated is the options hedging relative to recent history — the put/call ratio continuing to hold near its 52-week high would be the detail worth tracking as the ETF attempts to reclaim the ground lost in that early-June session.
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