Three data streams are pointing in the same direction on SOXL. The cost to borrow has spiked. The put-call ratio is at a 52-week high. Short interest is rising. Yet the ETF has gained 141% in a month.
Cost to borrow hit 2.63% on May 13. That is up 169% in a single week. A week ago it sat at 0.98%. Bears are paying significantly more to maintain short exposure against a 3X leveraged instrument that keeps moving against them.
Availability remains moderate. The borrow pool is not exhausted. But the rapid cost acceleration signals fresh demand for shorts — traders actively building new positions even as the price climbs.
The ORTEX short score has drifted up to 62.8, from 56.8 a week ago. That is a steady grind higher across every session.
The put-call ratio hit 1.25 on May 13 — the highest in 52 weeks. The 20-day average is 1.13. The current reading sits 1.8 standard deviations above that mean.
For a leveraged ETF that has rallied 141% in one month, a PCR near 1.25 is a loud signal. Traders are spending heavily on downside protection. Some of that is likely mechanical hedging from institutions holding long positions. Some is directional.
Either way, the options market is priced for a reversal more than at any point in the past year.
Short interest stands at 4.0% of float — up 9.3% in a single day on May 13 and 13.8% over the past month. In absolute terms, roughly 13.7 million shares are short.
At 4% of float, this is not an extreme squeeze setup. But the direction matters. Shorts increased on a day SOXL rose 6.8%. That is conviction, not capitulation.
The 1-day move from ~12.5 million to ~13.7 million shares short coincided with a week-on-week CTB jump of 169%. New shorts paid more to get in. That is a meaningful data point.
Three signals are aligned: rising short interest, a 52-week-high put-call ratio, and a borrow cost that tripled in a week. All three reflect the same trade — positioning for a pullback in a semiconductor product that has run 141% in 30 days.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open SOXL 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.
