Short sellers stepped up bets on aerospace and defense ETFs this week. Both XAR and PPA saw short interest surge by double digits. Convergence signals on earnings plays — including BMY, HON, and CRSR — added texture to an otherwise mixed short landscape.
XAR — SPDR S&P Aerospace & Defense ETF SI hit 2.1% of float. That's up 61.5% in one week. Cost to borrow climbed 19% and now sits at 2.45% APR. Availability remains comfortable at 151%, so the borrow market is not yet constrained.
PPA — Invesco Aerospace & Defense ETF SI surged 146% on the week to 0.55% of float. Cost to borrow nearly doubled to 1.55% APR. Availability has tightened to 46%, flagging growing demand for the borrow.
EWC — iShares MSCI Canada ETF SI rose 32% in one week to 6.86% of float. Availability stays high at 411%. The build reflects active repositioning in Canada-focused macro bets.
PLAB — Photronics SI climbed 32% over the week to 6.5% of float. Shares fell 1.8% after an earnings miss triggered a $1.1B selloff. Availability is extremely high at 849% — plenty of borrow headroom remains.
KNX — Knight-Swift Transportation SI reached 7.9% of float, up ~15% on the week. Options traders are pushing back bullishly. The divergence between short buildup and bullish options flow makes this a name to watch.
BMY — Bristol-Myers Squibb SI ticked up to 2.27% of float. Bears are accelerating into the July earnings window. Cost to borrow is low at 0.75% — easy to short, and the position build reflects deliberate pre-earnings pressure.
DFIV & IGPT — Sharp Unwinds DFIV short interest collapsed 59% in one week to 0.43% of float. IGPT plunged 54% in a single day to 0.54%. Both represent significant short covering, not new positioning.
Aerospace & Defense — Double Cover Two dedicated defense ETFs saw aligned short builds this week. XAR surged 61.5% and PPA surged 146% in short interest. Cost to borrow rose on both. Bears appear to be hedging defense sector exposure simultaneously — unusual convergence for sector-level ETFs.
Semiconductors — Bears Hold Despite Rally SOXX short interest sits at 13.9% of float. Cost to borrow is 3.01% APR. Availability has compressed to just 15.8% — a tight borrow market. The SOXX convergence signal flagged bears continuing to build despite a 32% monthly price rally. Short sellers are not capitulating.
Canada Macro Exposure EWC posted the week's largest ETF macro bet, with SI up 32%. The iShares Canada ETF saw "sharp rebuild activity" in short positioning, pointing to renewed bearish macro views on Canadian equities.
Several ORTEX convergence signals fired this week, pointing to notable cross-signal tensions.
BMY — Short sellers are accelerating into the July earnings print. SI is up on the week. Bears are building deliberately, not unwinding.
HON — Borrow costs whipsawed ahead of a Monday earnings print. SI rose to 1.97% of float. The setup flagged borrow volatility as a pre-event signal.
CRSR — Corsair Gaming SI stands at 17.1% of float — among the highest in the dataset. The convergence signal flagged bears circling ahead of June earnings. SI dipped slightly on the week (-1.2pp) but remains elevated. Cost to borrow is 2.09% APR.
KNX — Short sellers piled in while options traders turned bullish. SI hit 7.9% of float. The bull-bear standoff is active and unresolved.
SOXX — Bears kept building despite a 32% monthly price rally. Availability at 15.8% signals the borrow pool is nearly exhausted. Any further SI growth will face mechanical constraints.
DOW — Dow Inc. Put/call ratio near a 52-week high. Short sellers backed off slightly (SI fell 0.23pp to 3.1% of float). The options market is signalling more caution than the short book.
HOOD — Robinhood Goldman Sachs raised its price target. Call skew hit an annual extreme. Short sellers face mounting headwinds as institutional sentiment flips bullish.
COST — Costco Borrow cost collapsed. Options bulls held firm. A short-side retreat in a name with strong fundamental tailwinds.
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.
