SOXQ has seen a rapid reversal in borrow conditions since Tuesday. The availability squeeze that defined last week has partially unwound. Options traders, meanwhile, have pressed further into bullish territory.
Why this matters: Two days ago, availability sat at 15%. Today it stands at 83%. That is a dramatic loosening in a short window. Short interest at 10% of float remains material. The question is whether the easing reflects genuine short covering — or a temporary reprieve before the borrow tightens again.
Availability hit a low of roughly 15% on July 21. That was close to the 52-week floor of 9.8%. Since then it has recovered sharply — 83% as of July 23. That means for every share currently lent out, about 83 additional shares remain available to borrow.
The turnaround is consistent with short covering. Short interest dropped roughly 7% on July 23 alone. Over the past week it is up just 1.5%, but the intraweek swings have been volatile — peaking at 1.48 million shares on July 22 before pulling back.
Cost to borrow has risen 45% over the week to 1.93%. That is elevated relative to a month ago, but not at levels that signal acute stress.
The put/call ratio hit 0.73 on July 23. That is 2.1 standard deviations below its 20-day mean of 0.92. The 52-week range runs from 0.03 to 1.97 — so current positioning sits in the lower third, firmly skewed toward calls.
This continues the pattern noted two days ago. Options buyers have been pushing into calls even as borrow conditions were at their tightest. With availability now loosening, the near-term friction for maintaining short positions has decreased.
The ORTEX short score stands at 55.5 as of July 22, its highest reading in the current 10-day window. It was 58.7 as recently as July 9, so the score has been elevated for several weeks. It is not flashing an extreme, but it reflects consistent pressure on this ETF from short sellers.
Watch: Whether availability holds above 50% in coming sessions, or reverts toward the tight levels seen earlier this week.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open SOXQ 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.
