CGGR, the Capital Group Growth ETF, tells an interesting story this week — not in its price, which slipped just 1.1%, but in a dramatic reversal in its borrow market conditions that happened almost overnight at the start of July.
The standout event is a sharp loosening of the lending pool. Through most of June, borrow availability was genuinely tight: on June 24 the lending market was fully exhausted, with availability at just 246% of short interest and utilization hitting 100%. By June 29 utilization was still running at 97%. Then, in the first week of July, something changed. Availability exploded to over 5,287% by July 7 — meaning shares available to borrow now dwarf the actual short position by a factor of more than 50. That is an extraordinary swing in less than two weeks. Short interest itself fell 15.8% over the week to just 0.38% of float, reinforcing the picture of a market where bears have largely stepped back.
The cost-to-borrow data adds one mild wrinkle to that otherwise relaxed picture. Despite the availability surge, borrowing costs rose 31.7% over the week to 1.78% annually — up from under 1% in early June. That is still a low absolute rate, but the direction of travel is worth noting given how loose supply has become. Normally, a flood of available shares pushes borrow costs down. The divergence suggests some residual demand for shorts even as the pool of lendable shares expanded sharply. The ORTEX short score has moved in lockstep with the lending shift, dropping from the high-40s in late June to 28.5 today — its lowest reading in the observable window and a level that signals broadly low short-selling pressure on this name.
Options positioning confirms the bullish tilt. The put/call ratio has collapsed to 0.25, well below its 20-day average near 0.48, and sits close to its 52-week low. That reading is roughly one standard deviation below the recent mean — options traders are buying calls at a pace that far outstrips protective put demand. For an ETF with no scheduled earnings catalyst, the shift in options skew is the clearest real-time expression of how holders are leaning right now.
CGGR paid a small cash dividend of $0.0274 on June 30. No analyst coverage or valuation multiples are available for this ETF, which is typical for actively managed exchange-traded products. The price has recovered 3% over the past month to $46.66, holding up reasonably well after the brief June borrow squeeze.
The next thing to watch is whether the cost-to-borrow drift higher continues even as availability stays loose — any narrowing of that divergence, or a renewed tightening in availability, would be the first signal that the bear-case positioning from late June is rebuilding.
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