SpaceX Options Traders Pile Into Calls After 35% Drop
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- SpaceX shares rallied 7% to their highest since last Tuesday, recovering from a 35% pullback from post-IPO highs, fueled by speculation SpaceX could acquire a mobile carrier and a Rocket Lab-Iridium satellite communications deal.
- SpaceX options traders bought more than four times as many calls as puts, with total call volume double put volume; of the top 10 contracts by volume, seven were calls and nine expire Thursday, per ThinkOrSwim data.
- Prosper Trading Academy's Charles Moon said SpaceX defended its all-time low around $147, signaling buyer demand on the pullback, and disclosed he personally bought SpaceX stock alongside 170-strike calls.
- A notable spread trade saw a trader sell roughly $450,000 of 150-strike puts expiring January 2027 and buy the same number of 160-strike calls when SpaceX traded at $155 Monday morning — already profitable as shares hit their highest since last Tuesday.
- The second-most popular SpaceX contract by volume was the 300-strike call expiring Thursday, a 10-cent speculative bet requiring shares to nearly double by week's end; Moon dismissed it as an unlikely gamma squeeze attempt.
- Rocket Lab surged 16% in the session, with options volume running 50% above its 30-day average and calls outpacing puts by a factor of four, per Cboe LiveVol data.
Why it matters: Despite the bullish call-to-put ratio of more than 4-to-1, the most popular SpaceX contracts — including 10-cent 300-strike calls that need shares to nearly double by Thursday — are speculative lottery tickets rather than conviction bets. The $147 all-time low is now the technical floor separating cautious buyers from outright gamblers, with Rocket Lab's 16% surge suggesting satellite communications momentum is spilling over into SpaceX's complex.
