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Options traders on RGC are shifting fast. The put-call ratio dropped to 1.36 on October 14, nearly 2.5 standard deviations below its 20-day mean of 2.23. That is a sharp break from a market that spent most of September and early October running PCRs above 2.4.
For weeks, puts dominated RGC's options flow. The PCR sat above 2.4 through late September and held there into early October. That changed abruptly on October 14. A reading of 1.36 against a 52-week low of 0.82 and high of 4.20 tells you where the shift sits in context: this is not a record, but it is the most aggressive call-buying the market has seen in roughly a month, and it arrived as the stock added 44% over the rolling 30-day window.
The timing matters. Short interest fell 25.6% in a single week to approximately 576,000 shares. That unwind was the largest weekly retreat in the dataset. Shorts exiting into a rising stock tend to leave call buyers emboldened.
Yesterday's article covered the lending picture in detail. One update worth noting: availability has risen to 40.4% as of October 13, up from 17% to 24% for much of the prior week. More room in the lending pool suggests the acute squeeze pressure has eased somewhat. Cost to borrow, at 304%, has barely moved in real terms. It has held in a 300% to 355% band for six consecutive weeks. Entering a new short position here costs roughly three times the stock's value per year in financing alone.
The ORTEX short score sits at 66.4, which places RGC in the 16th percentile for short score rank within its sector. That is a persistently elevated reading, not a fresh spike.
RGC is due to report on October 28. The past two annual reports produced moves of plus 3.8% and minus 13.2% on the day respectively, with a prior year print that fell more than 17% in one session. Options traders positioning with calls ahead of that date are taking a directional view into a print with a history of outsized moves in both directions.
What to watch: whether the PCR holds below 2.0 into the earnings date, and whether availability tightens again as the print approaches.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open RGC on ORTEX →ORTEX Market Intelligence content is generated by AI from a snapshot of ORTEX's proprietary data and reviewed by the ORTEX team. Content is informational only and does not constitute investment advice.
