FXR — the First Trust Industrials/Producer Durables AlphaDEX ETF — heads into mid-May with its most striking data point being a dramatic unwind of short positioning that built aggressively through mid-April.
The short interest story here is sharp. Estimated short shares peaked near 87,000 around April 13–23, a level that dwarfed anything seen before or since in the 30-day window. By May 12, that figure had collapsed to roughly 6,500 shares — a drop of more than 62% on the week and nearly 48% over the month. At just 0.03% of the float, short interest is now negligible. This was not a gradual fade; the unwind was abrupt, occurring almost entirely between April 23 and April 24, when reported shares fell from ~87,000 to ~17,000 in a single session. Whatever drove the April build — likely tactical hedging or pairs positioning around tariff volatility in industrial names — it has been fully dismantled.
The borrow market tells a more nuanced story. Cost to borrow has more than doubled over the past week to 2.40%, despite short interest cratering. That divergence — fewer shorts, but higher borrowing costs — points to a tighter lending pool rather than fresh demand. Availability remains the relevant frame: with short interest so low, even a modest tightening in the lending market can move the cost needle meaningfully. The 52-week utilization peak was 100%, though the current reading of roughly 62% suggests the borrow market has eased materially from its most stressed point. Options data adds nothing to the picture — the put/call ratio has sat at zero across every session in the dataset, indicating no meaningful listed options activity on this ETF.
The ORTEX short score of 44.9 is mid-range and has barely moved over the past two weeks, drifting only slightly lower from 45.5 at the start of May. That stability reinforces the read that the positioning story is essentially settled — the sharp moves are behind it, not ahead of it. The ETF itself is essentially flat on the week, down less than 0.1%, after shedding about 1% on Tuesday. The one-month gain of roughly 0.4% reflects the broader industrials sector grinding sideways as trade-policy noise ebbs and flows.
With no upcoming earnings event, no analyst coverage, and options markets dormant, the main thread to watch is whether the industrials complex sees another round of tactical short-selling — particularly if macro data or trade headlines put fresh pressure on producer durables names. The April spike showed how quickly positioning can build in this vehicle; the speed of the unwind was equally striking.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
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