SLV, the iShares Silver Trust, heads into the first week of August with a striking reversal in short positioning — bears have been quietly closing out over the past month while the ETF itself grinds higher.
The most notable shift in this week's data is the rapid unwinding of short interest. Bearish positioning has fallen nearly 10% over the past week alone, and is down 23% from a month ago, bringing short interest to roughly 4.7% of free float. The history tells a clean story: shorts peaked near 6.5% of float in early July and have retreated steadily since. That retreat has coincided with a 4.1% price gain on the week — to $53.84 — and a broader narrative around dollar weakness and renewed industrial silver demand.
The lending market confirms the de-risking story in full. Borrow availability has opened up dramatically — from deeply tight conditions in early July, when availability briefly touched below 60%, to a current reading of roughly 395%. A month ago, the borrow pool was near its tightest of the past year at around 58%; today there are nearly four shares available to lend for every one currently borrowed. That's a loose market by any measure. Cost to borrow has followed the same path, easing to 0.44% from peaks above 0.94% in early July — a halving of borrowing costs in five weeks. Options traders aren't pushing against that trend either. The put/call ratio is running slightly below its 20-day average at 0.49, with a z-score just under -0.73 — not dramatically bullish, but modestly so, suggesting no particular surge in demand for downside protection.
What drove the earlier tightness matters here. The short interest history shows a clear spike through early-to-mid July — positioning built aggressively into the first two weeks of the month, stretching availability toward its 52-week low of around 9.8%. That setup has now completely unwound. The ORTEX short score reflects the shift too: it has dropped from 54.8 in late July to 47.1 today, crossing below the neutral 50 threshold — a move that signals the weight of short-side pressure has eased rather than intensified.
Institutional data offers some context on the holder base. Most of the reported top positions are broker-dealer and market-maker names — Morgan Stanley, Jane Street, Susquehanna — rather than directional long-only investors. Jane Street trimmed a significant 11.8 million shares in the quarter ending March, while Susquehanna added 5.7 million over the same period. Citadel entered a new 2.2 million-share position. These flows look tactical rather than structural, consistent with an arbitrage-oriented holder base that adjusts around silver price momentum.
The cleaner signal to watch from here is whether silver's spot price can hold above the $32/oz zone that recent notes have flagged as a support level. SLV's own price is down roughly 2% over the past month despite the weekly gains — so the ETF is still recovering from a softer July. The continued loosening of the borrow pool and the declining short score suggest bears are not rebuilding, but whether they stay sidelined depends on what silver does next at spot.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
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