One (possible) way ETFs are leveraged against GME.
This is just my read after tracking several of the GME ETFs for a few months. Unfortunately, historical daily data of ETF holdings is difficult to come by (wonder why that is) so my data set is far from complete. But watching the daily flows in and out of XRT and the other major GME ETFs has helped me make some decisions with managing my position and more eyes and feedback is always a positive!
That said... Here, we, go!
- Friday 3/14 with the close at $23, ETF re-balance targets were set for this Friday 3/21. Most of the big holders already have their allocations stuffed in from the 2 month sell off.
2. For example: From 3/03 - 3/13 XRT alone added over 1M shares into the books as the price dropped maintaining their ~1.3% target weighting. Off the climb since 3/13, 700,000 of those shares have now been pulled back out.
3. Shares that are currently being acquired by MMs as the price slowly climbs (from the very same ETFs they initially stuffed them in) are used to close out the obligations on the shorts that started at $34 around 1/7 with an anchored VWAP of ~$27 currently.
What might happen up above $27? New shorts can be opened above the existing shorts cost basis. Regardless of earnings news, shorts can now drive price down again stuffing the shares right inside of XRT et al for safe keeping until they need to pull them out again.
And a new 35 day cycle of FTDs begins inside the 90 day cycle of ETF stuffing and retrieval where we rinse and repeat until an order hits the tape that's too big to fill.
This is mostly separate from, but adjacent to the Creation/Redemption cycle of the ETF itself.