Options traders are piling into calls on NVDL, GraniteShares' 2x leveraged Nvidia ETF, even as the borrow market runs at absolute maximum tightness. Three signals are now pointing in opposite directions — and the tension between them is worth watching.
The put-call ratio on NVDL dropped to 0.49 on May 13. That is 2.2 standard deviations below the 20-day mean of 0.60. It is also near the 52-week low of 0.42. Call buyers have dominated options flow as the ETF surged 18% in a week and 40% over the past month. The price closed at $118.67 on May 13, up 4.5% on the day.
Shorts have been retreating. Shares short fell 11.9% over the past week, and are down 18.6% over the past month. The unwind has been consistent: from roughly 10.5 million shares short in early April to just over 8 million now.
Despite that short covering, the borrow market is at full capacity. Availability has dropped to zero — every share in the lending pool is currently out on loan, matching the 52-week peak. This has persisted since May 7.
That matters for a leveraged ETF like NVDL. When availability is this tight, short sellers cannot easily add new positions even if they want to. Demand to borrow may have eased, but supply has not returned. Cost to borrow stands at 8.96% annualised, up 52.5% over the past month — confirming that the borrow market tightened sharply as the rally accelerated.
The ORTEX short score sits at 70.1. It has held in a narrow band between 70.0 and 70.4 for the past two weeks. Despite the sharp drop in shares short, the score has not fallen — suggesting that availability tightness and cost-to-borrow are keeping the overall short-pressure reading elevated.
What to watch: Whether the continuing short unwind — against a background of zero availability — creates additional upward pressure on borrow costs as the leveraged rally continues.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open NVDL 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.
