Options volume in space stocks boomed as investors look for any way 'to get long SpaceX'
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- EchoStar shares rose 11% Thursday and options volume for its ticker "SATS" exceeded 11 times the 30‑day average, according to Cboe LiveVol.
- AST SpaceMobile jumped 12% and generated almost $140 million in options trading, with implied volatility at 129.
- Virgin Galactic saw a surge in options activity, with call buying roughly 3.5 times higher than put buying.
- Piper Sandler head of options trading Danny Kirsch said short‑dated call buying in these names is a way investors seek exposure to SpaceX, indicating both retail and institutional demand.
- UFO ETF and its counterpart JEDI have been forced to buy shares of AST, EchoStar and Spire, creating a supply bottleneck that lifts proxy‑play prices.
- SpaceX IPO is set to price at $135 per share, a level that aligns with high implied volatilities (EchoStar 97, AST 129) and is expected to attract retail traders paying steep premiums.
- Webull CEO Anthony Denier predicts SpaceX options could become one of the most actively traded retail names, given the combination of high share price, volatility and public interest.
Why it matters: Shareholders of EchoStar, AST SpaceMobile and other space‑linked firms benefit from the price and options‑volume surge, while ETFs that hold these stocks face a supply bottleneck that pushes up their prices, and retail traders must pay high premiums for SpaceX options.
Ask SkimNews
