SOXX has pulled back 3.7% this week, and for the first time since the May surge, short sellers are quietly rebuilding positions rather than running for cover.
The short interest story has shifted noticeably from a week ago. A previous note published May 13 described shorts in full retreat, with the month-long short interest decline reaching 26.5%. That covering wave has now reversed. Short interest has crept back up, rising roughly 1.4% over the past week to 7.76 million shares — 13.8% of the float. That's a modest rebuild in absolute terms, but the direction has flipped. Shares short bottomed around May 13 at 7.55 million and have edged higher on each of the last four sessions. The borrow market tells a similar story of tightening pressure. Availability has dropped from a loose 175% on May 1 to 56% today — still within the "tight" range, but moving fast in the wrong direction. At May 7 it briefly squeezed below 26%. Cost to borrow remains low at around 1.06%, down from the early-April peak above 2%, so the lending market isn't flashing a squeeze signal yet. Collectively, the positioning picture looks less like aggressive new shorting and more like hedging returning as the price rally loses momentum.
Options positioning reinforces that defensive tone. The put/call ratio is running at 3.0, roughly in line with its elevated 20-day average of 3.05. That average itself tells the real story: throughout the entire May rally, options traders maintained one of the most hedged postures of the past year. The 52-week range runs from 1.1 at the bullish extreme to 3.7 at the most fearful — today's reading sits firmly in the cautious half of that range. The z-score is essentially flat at -0.17, meaning this week's slight PCR easing is statistically unremarkable. Demand for put protection never really unwound during the price surge, and it remains firmly in place now that the price has retraced.
The ORTEX short score has been remarkably stable through all of this. It closed at 64.2 on May 19, down only fractionally from 65.9 two weeks ago. That stability is itself a signal — the score never dropped materially during the rally, suggesting the broader short-selling community maintained conviction on the bearish side even as the ETF ripped 33% higher in May. Goldman Sachs remained the largest institutional holder as of end-March at 6.2% of shares, having added 484,000 shares that quarter. Susquehanna International nearly doubled its position in Q1, adding over 1.1 million shares. Jane Street established a fresh position of nearly 595,000 shares. On the other side, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan exited its 590,000-share position entirely. The net flow from institutional holders through March looks broadly supportive, though that data predates the bulk of May's price action.
The week's 3.7% pullback from $516 to $497 arrives after one of the strongest monthly performances in SOXX's recent history. That the short rebuild is happening at these price levels — after covering accelerated on the way up — suggests some participants view the current price as a better entry point for short exposure than where they started. What to watch from here is whether the short interest trend continues to build above the 7.76 million-share level, or whether any renewed strength in semis sector newsflow triggers another round of covering pressure.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
Open SOXX 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.
