Goldman Sachs trading-desk data show July ETF and index options put/call ratio (PCR) rose to 112%, a year-to-date high. Since March the PCR gap between ETF+index options and single-stock options has widened to 53 percentage points, signaling investors are selectively buying individual names while materially increasing market-level hedging. Goldman says traders may continue to hold favored stocks and use ETF and index options to protect against market, interest-rate and macro-driven drawdowns. If

Goldman Sachs trading-desk data show July ETF and index options put/call ratio (PCR) rose to 112%, a year-to-date high. Since March the PCR gap between ETF+index options and single-stock options has widened to 53 percentage points, signaling investors are selectively buying individual names while materially increasing market-level hedging. Goldman says traders may continue to hold favored stocks and use ETF and index options to protect against market, interest-rate and macro-driven drawdowns. If demand for index puts continues to climb while single-stock buying stays resilient, markets could move further into a stock-selection, lower-aggregate-beta regime.