RPG, the Invesco S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF, heads into the final week of August with its lending market notably looser than it was a month ago — a reversal that tells a quieter story than the headline short-interest numbers suggest.
The most interesting feature this week is the divergence between the one-month short-interest surge and the rapid unwind now under way. Short interest climbed more than 330% across August — from roughly 51,000 shares in early August to a peak above 286,000 shares on August 18 — before collapsing 16% in a single session on August 25 to around 226,000 shares. Even at that peak, the position amounted to less than 0.7% of float, firmly in low-significance territory for an ETF of this type. The month-long build looks more like tactical hedging around a volatile period for growth equities than a conviction short. Cost to borrow tells a complementary story: it peaked above 2.8% in late July and has since more than halved to 1.38%, although a 25% rebound over the past week suggests some residual demand for borrows. Availability is generous — at 268%, there are roughly 2.7 shares available to lend for every share currently borrowed, well above the tightest point of the past year, when availability dropped to just 3.4%. The borrow market, in short, is no longer stressed.
Options positioning reinforces the benign read. Call demand is running far ahead of put demand, with the put/call ratio at just 0.021 — below its 20-day average of 0.030 and well off the early-August peak above 0.05. The z-score of -0.71 confirms the ratio is mildly below its recent norm. At the 52-week low the PCR reached zero, and the current reading is barely above that floor, reflecting a market that has been leaning almost entirely toward upside exposure in recent weeks.
The ORTEX short score of 41.6 reinforces the low-pressure picture. It has risen from 26.8 in mid-August — when availability was still extremely loose and short interest was minimal — to its current level as shorts gradually rebuilt positions. The move up in the score tracks the August rebuild in short interest almost exactly, and the score's plateau over the past week mirrors the recent short-interest pullback. Nothing in the score history suggests building conviction on the bear side.
Price action reflects the mixed week for growth equities more broadly. RPG closed at $57.62, down 2.3% on the week after a modest 0.6% gain on Tuesday. The one-month return of 1.6% is positive but modest, consistent with the note from earlier in the week that the fund is up around 18% year-to-date. The fund pays small quarterly distributions — the most recent were $0.022 in June and $0.017 in March 2026 — but income is clearly not the draw here.
For the week ahead, the key variable is broad market direction for high-growth equities. RPG's pure-growth mandate concentrates exposure in names most sensitive to rate expectations and risk appetite; the low put/call ratio and retreating short interest both point to a market currently leaning constructive on that trade — but the speed with which both metrics moved in August is a reminder of how quickly the positioning can flip.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open RPG 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.
