SpaceX has now lost the equivalent of a full Tesla in market capitalization

What’s one trillion between a trillionaire and his biggest fans?

SpaceX has now erased more than $1.2 trillion in market cap since its high price of $225.64 in June – almost exactly the value of Elon Musk’s other company, Tesla, whose shares just fell to near one-year lows. On Monday, SpaceX fell for the 13th session out of the last 16, shedding more than 1% to end at $113.50.

While some of the options flows are getting more balanced between bulls and bears, the biggest single SpaceX trades of the day on Monday were neutral to bullish. Small speculators continue to buy fat-chance calls that need the crashing stock to quickly turn around and double.

More calls traded than puts by volume Monday, with traders buying 106,000 calls compared to 77,000 puts, though the majority of the $442 million in premium was tied to puts. The most popular contract by volume was the 330-strike call expiring Friday, a contract that goes for 10 cents and has a roughly one-third of 1% chance of working, according to ThinkOrSwim data.

Four of the five biggest trades by premium were neutral or bullish, Cboe LiveVol data show. That included two giant put-spread sellers, including one multimillion-dollar sale of in-the-money put spreads that need SpaceX to rally, as well as someone who collected $1.8 million selling 5,200 of the 100-strike puts expiring Oct. 16 and buying 7,000 of the 85-strike puts with the same expiry.

“As an investor it’s early – as a trader, Wall Street is now punishing the AI stocks for capex,” said Charles Moon, a tech and momentum specialist for Prosper Trading Academy in Chicago.

One thing’s certain: SpaceX is offering traders one of the wildest rides in the market. While earnings are typically volatility-reducing events, that may not necessarily be the case after next week’s report.
SpaceX’s first earnings report since its initial public offering paves the way for investors to sell 20% of their eligible locked-up stock, a total of up to 911.5 million shares, on the second full trading day immediately following the first earnings release date — that is, Aug. 6.

“I don’t think the lock-up on SpaceX will be as bad as everyone fears,” Moon said. “But it’s not going to help the cause either.”

SpaceX shares were lower again Tuesday in early trading, down about 3%.