Space stocks jump with huge demand as investors clamor for any way 'to get long SpaceX'
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- AST Spacemobile, whose satellites are expected to launch on a SpaceX rocket next week, jumped 12% alongside almost $140 million in options trading.
- "There's a ton of short-dated call buying in these names as a way to get long SpaceX," Danny Kirsch, head of options trading at Piper Sandler, said by phone.
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Today is the big day. If you want clues for what might happen, look to the proxy trades that have been the rage among options traders.Options volumes are booming in stocks with ties to Space X ahead of Friday's historic debut of the newest public entity run by the world's richest man. While Wall Street debates whether the $1.75 trillion IPO is an egregiously overpriced hype-machine or the future of mankind, traders are piling into calls on anything that might catch a bid by association.Shares of EchoStar, the Colorado-based networking business that owns an estimated 3% of SpaceX stock, surged 11% Thursday and options volume was more than eleven times the 30-day average in 'SATS', according to data from Cboe's LiveVol. AST Spacemobile, whose satellites are expected to launch on a SpaceX rocket next week, jumped 12% alongside almost $140 million in options trading. Even Virgin Galactic Holdings, a stock that lost 99% from high to low, saw options trading ignite, with almost 3.5 times more calls bought than puts.
"There's a ton of short-dated call buying in these names as a way to get long SpaceX," Danny Kirsch, head of options trading at Piper Sandler, said by phone. "I have no doubt part of it is retail demand but there is definitely institutional demand for SATS."