GDX has reversed sharply from last week's lows, with the VanEck Gold Miners ETF up 5.6% on the week and 4.1% on Tuesday alone, closing at $88.50. The question now is whether the short sellers who built positions into April's rally are starting to feel the heat.
They aren't — at least not yet. Short interest is essentially unchanged on the week, edging down just 0.8% to 13.1% of the float, with roughly 39.5 million shares short. That's a marginal reduction, but the monthly picture still shows a 9.8% build since late April, when short shares stepped up from around 35.7 million to 38.9 million in two sessions. Short sellers added exposure into the April run-up and have not meaningfully covered into this week's bounce. The ORTEX short score holds at 65.5, consistent with a fund that remains a popular vehicle for hedging gold-miner exposure.
The lending market tells a different story, and it's the more interesting one this week. Availability has loosened considerably. It ran below 60% as recently as May 13 — tighter territory, with roughly one share available for every two already borrowed — and has since eased back above 110%, meaning the pool of available shares now comfortably exceeds current short demand. Cost to borrow has drifted lower too, down 8.6% on the week to 0.47%, its softest level in over a month. Cheap borrow and a reopened lending pool remove the near-term financial pressure that might otherwise force short covering. The 52-week availability low of 9.3% — hit earlier this year — remains a useful reference: the current setup is far from that kind of squeeze territory.
Options positioning has softened slightly but remains structurally defensive. The put/call ratio edged down to 1.06, just below its 20-day average of 1.09, with a z-score of -0.68 — mildly below trend but not a significant departure. Puts still outnumber calls by a meaningful margin. The 52-week PCR high of 2.06 underscores how much more bearish options traders have been at extremes; the current reading is calm by comparison, suggesting that options hedgers are not adding fresh downside protection into the rally, but they haven't unwound existing positions either.
Institutional flow data — as of March 31 — shows diverging behaviour among the major holders. Goldman Sachs added aggressively, lifting its position by 5.5 million shares to 8.2 million, while JPMorgan added 4.1 million shares. BMO Asset Management, the largest disclosed holder at 22.6 million shares, also added 3.2 million. On the other side, Wells Fargo trimmed by 3.2 million shares and UBS cut by 1.5 million. Morgan Stanley also reduced. The net institutional picture is one of rotation rather than wholesale exit or entry, with the big additions concentrated in broker-dealer and bank names.
The note published here last week flagged that short sellers were holding their ground through a sharp pullback. That dynamic hasn't changed — short interest has barely moved despite a 5.6% weekly gain. What to watch now is whether this week's price recovery begins to put meaningful pressure on the 39.5 million shares that remain short, or whether shorts interpret the bounce as an opportunity to add rather than exit.
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