Why this matters — Three distinct ORTEX data streams have aligned on AU within 24 hours: cost to borrow, options sentiment, and short interest. When multiple short-side metrics converge on a single ticker, it often signals a shift in market positioning or liquidity conditions.
Cost to borrow has spiked sharply. AU's borrowing cost surged to 1.71% on April 22, up 227% from 0.49% one week earlier. The APR has tripled in a matter of days. This marks the highest CTB in over a month and suggests brokers are tightening access to shares for shorting.
Options sentiment has turned bullish. The put/call ratio dropped to 1.29 on April 21, down from a 20-day average of 1.62. The Z-score of -2.39 indicates the ratio is now two standard deviations below its recent mean. Traders are buying more calls relative to puts, a shift toward bullish positioning.
Short interest has declined but remains elevated. Short interest fell 4.2% over the past month to 4.0 million shares, or 0.79% of free float. Despite the decline, the shares-short figure jumped 1% day-over-day, and utilization sits at just 4.6%, well below the 52-week high of 14.6%. The recent drop in SI may have triggered the CTB spike as availability tightened.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open AU 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.
