Bearish investor positioning in gold options is extremely crowded: The 6-month put-call skew on the largest US gold-backed ETF, GLD, is up to 1.03, near the highest since 2017. The put-call skew measures the relative cost of put options versus call options, rising when investors are paying more to protect against downside than to bet on further upside. This metric has risen +0.13 points over the last few weeks, posting the largest increase since the 2022 bear market. By comparison, the 10-year average of the 6-month put-call skew is 0.90. Meanwhile, the 3-month put skew on GLD is up to 1.19, the highest on record. This measures demand for downside protection, and it rises when investors are willing to pay more to hedge against losses. The short gold trade has become very crowded.(The Kobeissi Letter)