Brazil ETF call option open interest surges to record $20B as election polls tighten

Options traders are making an enormous wager on Brazil. Call option open interest on the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ) has ballooned to roughly 5.2 million contracts, representing about $20B in notional exposure. That’s the highest level since 2007, and it nearly doubled in a matter of days. The numbers behind the Brazil bet As of early September 2026, call open interest on EWZ stood at approximately 5.2 million contracts. That figure jumped roughly 86% from about 2.8 million contracts on August 24. To put the speed of that move in perspective, that’s a near-doubling in less than two weeks. The ETF itself has climbed around 15% during the same stretch, pushing its year-to-date gain to roughly 19%, outpacing the Nasdaq-100 in certain windows. Daily options volume has spiked to more than six times the 30-day average at several points in early September, with the overwhelming majority of that activity concentrated in calls. The most popular trades cluster around out-of-the-money strike prices at $43 and $45, with expiration dates set for November 20, 2026. Those two strikes alone account for approximately 1.37 million contracts. With EWZ trading in the $38 to $39 range, those strikes ...