The bullish signal that defined last week's note on DIA has faded. Options traders have pulled back from their most call-heavy positioning in a year, short interest has begun a modest recovery, and the ETF has shed nearly 1% on the week to close at $512.88.
The most telling reversal is in derivatives. The put/call ratio has edged back up to 1.40 from last week's 52-week low of 1.29, moving closer to its 20-day average of 1.47. The reading is now roughly 0.8 standard deviations below that average, still modestly below, but the sharp bullish lean that made last week's note has evaporated. Options traders are no longer leaning hard toward calls. The PCR history shows a clear drift back toward the middle of the range after the brief dip into unusual call territory last Thursday.
The borrow market has tightened considerably from where it stood seven days ago, though it remains well off the squeeze levels seen in early-to-mid September. Availability has dropped from 237% a week ago to 122%, a 48% decline over seven days. That is still comfortable by absolute standards, with more shares available to borrow than are currently shorted, but the direction of travel has reversed from the easing trend last week's note described. Cost to borrow has also ticked up 37% on the week to 0.54%, recovering from its recent low, though it remains low in absolute terms. Short interest itself has fallen sharply over the same period, down 27% on the week to 3.3% of the float. So availability is tightening even as the quantity of shorts declines, suggesting the pool of lendable shares has shrunk faster than bears have been covering.
The ORTEX short score sits at 49.5, essentially neutral and little-changed across the past two weeks. It has oscillated in a tight band between 47 and 53 since mid-September, offering no strong directional read. That mirrors the broader indecision in the positioning data: short interest is falling, which would normally look bullish, but the borrow market is re-tightening and options hedges are rebuilding. The signals are pointing in different directions rather than converging on a clear view.
Institutional ownership as of June 30 shows the usual broker-dealer and wealth-management mix at the top of the register. Morgan Stanley remains the largest disclosed holder at 3.8% of shares, having trimmed by 337,000 shares in the second quarter. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch were also net sellers in Q2, while Qube Research and Technologies added 456,000 shares, the largest single addition among the top fifteen holders. These are Q2 snapshots and do not capture more recent flows.
Analyst data for DIA is stale by several years and has been omitted. As a passive ETF, the relevant price anchor is the Dow Jones Industrial Average itself rather than sell-side price targets.
The setup to watch into October is whether the put/call ratio continues drifting back toward its 20-day average, and whether the tightening in availability accelerates or stabilises now that short interest has pulled back meaningfully from its early-September highs.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open DIA 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.
