The lending market for BBDO has flipped completely in three weeks. Availability has collapsed from effectively unlimited to just 33% — and every share in the pool is now lent out.
That is a dramatic reversal. As recently as August 2, an ORTEX earnings preview described availability as "essentially unlimited" and cost to borrow at a negligible 0.49%. Since then, the earnings report landed and short sellers moved fast.
The data tells a sharp story. Short interest sat at roughly 317 shares in late June. By August 3 it had reached 208,843 shares — a 65,000% rise over the month. The one-week surge alone is 260%.
Cost to borrow has followed. It stood at 0.49% on August 2. It now sits at 5.47%, up 201% in a week.
Availability has tracked the same trajectory in reverse. On July 20, availability was 3,664% — meaning the lending pool dwarfed short interest by a factor of roughly 36. By July 28, availability had dropped to 181%. By August 3, it was 33%. Today the lending pool is fully lent out.
Bradesco reported on August 5. The prior earnings preview flagged a put/call ratio more than two standard deviations above its 20-day average — options traders were already bracing. The stock has lost roughly 1% over the past week and gained about 10% over the past month, so the post-earnings direction hasn't been dramatic at the price level yet.
What has moved is the borrow market. The short score has climbed from 34.4 on July 21 to 49.9 on August 3 — a 45% rise in under two weeks. The days-to-cover rank sits at the 98th percentile.
One figure stands out. The minimum availability reading over the past 52 weeks is 0.11%. That came on August 3, the same day cost to borrow peaked in this current cycle. Availability was at 9,999% just three weeks ago. The move from maximum looseness to maximum tightness has been almost vertical.
For context: in May and June, cost to borrow was running between 15% and 26%. It then fell sharply, bottoming out below 1% in late July before this new wave of demand pushed it back toward 5.5%. The current borrow cost is still well below those spring highs, suggesting there is room for further tightening if short interest keeps climbing.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open BBDO 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.
