Short sellers have dramatically increased their OKE positions over the past week. Yet the options market is telling a very different story.
The put/call ratio for ONEOK dropped to 0.33 on September 21. That's a z-score of -2.66 — more than two standard deviations below the 20-day mean of 0.37. Options traders are loading up on calls relative to puts at an unusual pace. The PCR sits near the lower end of its 52-week range of 0.23–0.64.
Short interest climbed 46% over the past week to 4.38% of float — roughly 27.6 million shares. That's a meaningful jump for a midstream name that has traded quietly for months.
What makes it unusual: the borrow market isn't reacting. Availability stands at 466%, meaning there are more than four shares available to lend for every one currently borrowed. Cost to borrow is 0.52% — effectively free. Short sellers face no friction in putting on positions.
The one anomaly in that picture: cost to borrow spiked to 16.6% on September 14, then collapsed back to baseline within days. That single-session squeeze resolved quickly and left no lasting tightness in the lending pool.
The divergence is stark. Short interest is at its highest level in at least a month. The options market is simultaneously the most call-heavy it has been all year on a z-score basis.
These two signals don't cancel each other out — they flag that conviction is high on both sides. Institutional holders remain anchored: BlackRock holds 10.2% of shares, adding over 5 million shares in the most recent reported period. Capital Research added nearly 4.8 million shares. The institutional register looks stable.
OKE has also slipped 5.3% over the past week and is down 1.8% on the day. Next earnings land October 30.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
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