Business & Finance
Options trading surges in retail investor favorites amid low market volatility
Traders placed heavy bullish options bets on Robinhood, Palantir, Tesla, and SpaceX as the Cboe Volatility Index fell below 15.
The short version
- Options volume spiked significantly above average for prominent retail-favored stocks including Robinhood, Palantir, Tesla, and SpaceX.
- Call options outpaced put contracts by at least a 2-to-1 margin across all four companies, signaling strong bullish activity.
- Market participants leveraged broad drops in implied volatility, though the sustainability of this speculative momentum remains untested.
Key facts
- Options trading volume rose well above average on Thursday for Robinhood Markets, Palantir Technologies, Tesla, and SpaceX, with Robinhood and Tesla ranking as the top and fourth-most traded single-stock options respectively.[CNBC]
- Call purchases outnumbered put purchases by at least 2 to 1 across Robinhood, Palantir, Tesla, and SpaceX.[CNBC]
- Robinhood experienced more than triple its average daily trading volume, with nearly three times as many calls bought relative to puts.[CNBC]
- The increase in speculative options activity coincided with the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) trading below 15, reflecting a broad drop in implied volatility.[CNBC]
- SpaceX shares crossed above the $150 threshold, reaching a price level unseen since early July, while its 30-day implied volatility fell to the 4th percentile.[CNBC]
What remains uncertain
- Whether the heightened bullish retail options momentum will persist through typical seasonal volatility in September remains to be seen.[CNBC]