Shorts Evaporate for S&P 500 ETF as Stocks Grind Ever Higher

  • Bearish bets on SPDR S&P 500 ETF sink to lowest this year
  • Too much optimism is ‘cause for concern,’ says TIAA’s Gaffney
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Exchange-traded fund investors are throwing caution to the wind, betting the S&P 500’s record run isn’t stopping anytime soon.

Short interest as a percentage of shares outstanding on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust -- a rough indicator of bearish bets on U.S. stocks -- fell to as low as 2.4% this week, according to data from IHS Markit Ltd. That’s the smallest percentage since October 2018, just before U.S. stocks suffered the bulk of their fourth-quarter downturn.