SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) options trading exploded out of the gate following the company’s blockbuster IPO, recording 1.8 million contracts on its very first day of options trading.
That figure obliterated the previous single-stock record held by Meta (NASDAQ: META), marking one of the most dramatic debut performances in options market history.
Henry Schwartz, Cboe VP of Derivatives Market Intelligence, joined Yahoo Finance to break down the extraordinary demand surge and what it signals about investor appetite.
Schwartz pointed to the IPO itself as the primary catalyst, noting that many retail investors who wanted in on the offering were shut out entirely and left waiting on the sidelines.
SpaceX shares began trading on the secondary market on a Friday, with options becoming available as early as Tuesday morning through an accelerated listing process.
“It’s a little bit of FOMO on the IPO itself,” Schwartz said, describing the wave of retail call buying that dominated activity in the opening sessions.
Beyond retail enthusiasm, Schwartz noted the presence of significantly larger institutional activity, including hedges in the range of 5,000 to 6,000 contracts, equivalent to roughly half a million shares.
Those larger trades were characterized by put buying and call selling, with sophisticated investors effectively collaring their positions to lock in gains while preserving some upside exposure.
The stock itself reached as high as approximately $220 during the second or third day of trading, briefly surpassing Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) in market capitalization before pulling back.
Schwartz described the Amazon market cap milestone as “kind of a headline that everybody, you know, kind of had to scratch their head about,” underscoring just how rapidly sentiment moved during the opening days.
SpaceX options held the rank of third most active single-stock name for the first four trading days before cooling to around eighth place as the initial frenzy subsided.
Daily volume is now projected to settle in the range of 700,000 to 800,000 contracts, which Schwartz expects will keep SpaceX firmly in the top five to ten most active names for the remainder of the year.
Schwartz also indicated that short-term options contracts are likely to be introduced for SpaceX in the coming months, which could reignite retail interest and add another layer of trading activity to an already active ticker.
The broader pattern aligns with a well-documented trend in retail options markets, where declining prices in a single stock tend to suppress activity, while momentum and hype draw in outsized participation during early trading windows.
