Investors are aggressively betting on a sudden turnaround in interest rates, and they’re using call options on exchange-traded funds tied to utilities stocks and long-dated Treasury bonds to do it."

Trading volume in call options tied to popular ETFs like the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF $TLT and the State Street Utilities Select Sector SPDR ETF $XLU
have surged according to Dow Jones Market Data.

That comes after September’s surge in Treasury yields led to the TLT's worst monthly performance on a total-return basis since December 2024, deepening its third-quarter loss to almost 9%, FactSet data show.

XLU lost 13% in the third quarter, it's worst since January 2020.