SOXX is trading two conflicting signals at once. Short sellers are adding positions at the fastest pace in weeks — yet options traders are the most bullish they've been in months. Something has to give.
Short interest jumped 15.1% in a single day on May 27, reaching 15.8% of float. That's 8.89 million shares short — the highest level in recent weeks and a sharp reversal from the mid-May low near 7.55 million shares.
The borrow market has tightened dramatically to match. Availability has collapsed from 175% on May 1 to just 23.2% today. That means roughly one share remains available to borrow for every four already lent out — well inside the "very tight" threshold. The 52-week low availability sits at 0.43%, so there is still room to tighten further. But the speed of the move is notable: availability has dropped 54% in a single week.
Cost to borrow sits at 1.42% — up 22% over the past month. It remains low in absolute terms, but the direction is clear. Each data point points the same way: the lending pool is shrinking fast as demand for borrows rises.
The options market tells the opposite story. The put/call ratio fell to 2.93 on May 27, down from a 20-day mean of 3.10. That's a z-score of -1.10 — not extreme, but a consistent drift toward calls over the past two weeks. The PCR has dropped every session since May 15, when it stood at 3.49.
SOXX has gained 8.4% over the past week and 22.2% over the past month. Options buyers appear to be chasing the rally rather than hedging against it.
The positioning divergence is stark. Short sellers rebuilt positions aggressively even as the chip ETF rallied — suggesting conviction that the move is overdone. Options traders, meanwhile, are rotating toward calls, treating the same rally as a momentum signal worth buying.
Goldman Sachs added 484,000 shares in Q1, the largest institutional build among top holders. BNP Paribas added 682,000 and Susquehanna International — a major options market-maker — added 1.19 million shares. The Susquehanna build is particularly relevant given the options angle: market-makers accumulating shares may reflect hedging demand from growing call open interest rather than directional conviction.
The ORTEX short score sits at 64.4, broadly stable over the past two weeks. It hasn't spiked despite the positioning changes — suggesting the signal is a squeeze-pressure story rather than a new wave of fundamental bearishness.
Availability below 20% would put the borrow market in genuinely stressed territory. The prior May 7 squeeze briefly touched 25% before loosening — that level is now in the rearview mirror. Watch whether the PCR continues its downward drift or snaps back toward the 20-day mean as shorts dig in.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
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