Options traders are overwhelmingly bullish on IAU. The put-call ratio hit 0.167 on May 19 — a 52-week low and 2.7 standard deviations below the 20-day mean. That is the most call-heavy positioning this ETF has seen in a year.
The signal is hard to ignore. For every six calls traded, just one put changes hands. The 20-day average PCR sits at 0.183. The current reading is not a drift — it is a sharp departure.
SI rose 76% in one week to 1.06% of free float as of May 18. That is a fast move in absolute terms. In context, though, SI at just over 1% of float remains low. The borrow market reflects that reality: availability stands at 3,008% — meaning roughly 127 million shares sit available to borrow against fewer than 9 million shorted. The lending pool is effectively unlimited at current short levels.
Cost to borrow is 0.24%, down 9% on the week and 36% over the past month. Cheaper, not tighter. The surge in short interest is not yet straining the borrow market in any meaningful way.
The divergence is striking. Short interest is rising fast. So is call positioning. These are not contradictory.
For an ETF like IAU, rising short interest often reflects hedging activity — institutions using shorts to offset long gold exposure elsewhere, or pairs trades against other precious metals instruments. The near-zero cost to borrow and massive availability reinforce that interpretation. Nobody is scrambling for shares.
Meanwhile, the call-dominated options book tells a different story about directional positioning. Outright bullish bets on gold are piling up. The PCR's 52-week range runs from 0.167 to 1.95 — today's reading sits at the very bottom of that range.
UBS Asset Management added 7.6 million shares as of March 31 — the biggest change among top holders. BlackRock added another 1.4 million. Envestnet trimmed over 10 million shares. LPL Financial cut 3.6 million. The top holder list reflects a split: active builders and active reducers, consistent with a market still debating gold's next move after a record-setting run.
Data summary
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