When SpaceX’s IPO dropped last week, it was already breaking records like a rocket breaking through the atmosphere. But Tuesday? That’s when things got *really* wild.
On the first day options trading opened for SpaceX stock, the market saw 1.6 million options contracts trade hands. To put that in perspective, that’s more than four times the previous first-day record set by Meta back in 2012. Yeah, you read that right—SpaceX just obliterated a 14-year-old record in a single trading session.
Here’s where it gets interesting: options are basically the stock market’s way of letting people bet with leverage. They’re useful for hedging risk, sure, but they’re also the playground for traders who want to amplify their gains (and losses). Think of it as the difference between playing poker with your own money versus playing with borrowed chips. The stakes get higher, the swings get wilder, and the drama gets *much* better.
The most-traded contracts on day one? Mostly call options betting SpaceX would hit $220 by Thursday—a 9% jump in just two days. Some traders were even betting on a 49% rally to $300. That’s not investing; that’s straight-up speculation, and it’s exactly what happened during the retail trading boom of the post-COVID era.
What’s wild is that SpaceX immediately became the third-most-popular options stock, trailing only Tesla and Nvidia—two stocks that have basically become synonymous with retail trader chaos. If you know anything about those two, you know what that means for SpaceX: buckle up.
The real tell? One of the most popular longer-dated bets was a put option hedging against a drop to $205 by September. That suggests some smart money is already thinking about what happens when SpaceX insiders’ lock-up periods expire. Translation: not everyone’s convinced this rocket keeps going up forever.
Bottom line: SpaceX’s options debut shows us that Elon Musk’s company isn’t just a stock—it’s become a *trading vehicle*. And when retail traders get their hands on leverage, things get spicy.
