GLDM, the SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust, has dropped nearly 5% this week — but the short side of the trade remains almost non-existent.
Gold's pullback is the story here, not the shorts. GLDM closed at $88.70 on Tuesday, down 4.95% on the week and 7.6% over the past month, as bullion retreated from the record highs above $3,100 that had driven the ETF to its own all-time peak in April. The moves reflect broader macro repositioning — the Iran maritime tension in the Strait of Hormuz added a flicker of safe-haven bid late Tuesday, but it wasn't enough to offset the broader unwind. What's notable is that the price decline has not been accompanied by any meaningful increase in short selling. Short sellers are not driving this move down.
The lending market confirms that picture. Short interest is just 1% of float — and falling. It dropped 30% on a single session (May 19) to roughly 2.87 million shares. That's the lowest level in the 30-day window captured here. Borrowing costs are barely worth calling elevated, running at 0.40% annually, and they have actually eased from the 0.52% seen a week ago. Availability is, for practical purposes, unlimited — at 4,862%, there are nearly 49 shares available to borrow for every one currently lent out. The borrow market for gold ETFs is simply not under any pressure. For a fund of this size, short interest at 1% of float with this level of availability reflects normal, frictionless arbitrage flow rather than a conviction short.
The ORTEX short score of 27.3 is consistent with that read. It has been essentially flat all week, nudging between 27 and 32 with no directional trend. A score in that range signals low short-selling pressure across the board — not a stock where the lending market is pricing in any stress. Factor scores and valuation multiples are not meaningful for an ETF with no earnings or fundamental profile to speak of. GLDM trades as a direct proxy for bullion; the fund holds no leveraged positions and generates no analyst coverage.
What makes this week's setup worth watching is the divergence between positioning and performance. The fund is having one of its worst months since its 2018 inception, yet shorts have not stepped up to press the move. That means the recent weakness is being driven by holders reducing exposure — not by new short sellers building positions. The gold price itself is doing the heavy lifting: spot gold's trajectory from here, shaped by dollar dynamics, Federal Reserve messaging, and geopolitical risk appetite, is what matters most for the next leg.
The next catalyst to watch is any development on the US-China trade framework or Federal Reserve guidance that shifts the real-yield outlook — those remain the dominant drivers of bullion positioning, and GLDM's price will follow them closely.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
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