XSD heads into the final week of June carrying a sharp single-day loss against a backdrop where options traders have just pivoted to their most bullish stance in months.
The options signal is the clearest read on sentiment right now. The put/call ratio dropped to 0.87 on Tuesday, more than two standard deviations below its 20-day average of 1.11 — the most call-heavy reading relative to recent history in at least a year. That's a marked reversal from a period spanning most of May and early June when the PCR consistently ran above 1.15, suggesting investors were leaning defensively. The shift to calls has accelerated over just two sessions, with Monday and Tuesday both printing below 0.87, well clear of the 52-week low of 0.24 as a floor but representing a decisive swing from the hedging posture that dominated the prior six weeks.
The lending market tells a story that reinforces the less-anxious tone. Availability has loosened sharply — from a tight 46% in late May, when roughly half the lending pool was already committed, it has expanded to 281%, meaning there are now nearly three shares available to borrow for every one currently lent out. That's a genuine easing: at the May lows, availability dipped as far as 29%, a reading consistent with a crowded, hard-to-borrow name. Cost to borrow has also retreated, falling roughly 27% over the past month to 5.2% — still not cheap, but no longer at the elevated 7–8% levels seen through mid-May. Short interest itself has climbed about 6% over the week to 3.4% of free float, and is up 32% over the month, but the scale remains modest for an ETF that tracks volatile single-name semiconductors. The combination — rising SI but loosening borrow and falling cost — points to positioning rebuilding at a more orderly pace rather than a frenzied short squeeze setup.
The price action adds a wrinkle. XSD gained just over 1% on the week to $603.65, but Tuesday alone saw a 6.9% single-day drop — the kind of intraday volatility that is normal for a fund weighted toward smaller, purer-play semiconductor names. The one-month return is essentially flat, down a fraction of a percent, so the week's gain merely offsets some of that Tuesday slide. The ORTEX short score has eased from 53 a week ago to 47.7 now, a direction consistent with the loosening borrow market and declining hedging demand in options — the composite score is moving away from bearish territory even as short shares modestly increase.
On the ownership side, LPL Financial holds the largest disclosed position at just over 5% of shares. Raymond James and Kingsview Wealth Management were notable buyers in the most recent reported quarter, adding 30,652 and 28,839 shares respectively. BNP Paribas Financial Markets added 25,086 shares. None of these moves are large enough to shift the supply/demand picture materially, but the direction of the advisory-channel holders is constructive — the bracket of wealth management and broker-dealer holders appears to have been adding on weakness.
What to watch next is whether the call-heavy options positioning holds through any follow-through volatility, and whether borrow availability remains as loose now that short interest has been rebuilding steadily for a month.
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