{"id":1032858,"date":"2026-06-17T17:56:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T17:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1032858\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T17:56:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T17:56:21","slug":"spacexs-ipo-reshapes-space-trade-heres-why-shorts-are-piling-into-asts-and-spce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1032858\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX&#8217;s IPO Reshapes Space Trade \u2014 Here&#8217;s Why Shorts Are Piling Into ASTS And SPCE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"yf-1p2hw41\">\n<li class=\"yf-1p2hw41\">\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">S3 identified ASTS and SPCE as the sector&#8217;s clearest directional short bets.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"yf-1p2hw41\">\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">LUNR remains heavily shorted, but long investors are buying faster, with passive ownership up 101% year-to-date.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"yf-1p2hw41\">\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Meanwhile, RKLB and VSAT have seen shorts retreat, with short interest down 22% and 26% year-to-date respectively.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">SpaceX&#8217;s (SPCX) blockbuster IPO is doing more than minting Elon Musk as the world&#8217;s first trillionaire \u2014 it&#8217;s exposing where Wall Street&#8217;s biggest bearish bets are concentrated in the space sector, with AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) and Virgin Galactic (SPCE) emerging as the highest-conviction short trades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">SPCX stock has jumped 50% since its $135 IPO debut, briefly overtaking Microsoft and surpassing Amazon by market cap.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stocktwits.com\/newsletters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:See what 10M+ investors are talking about. Get the Stocktwits Daily Rip for what retail is watching right now, free to your inbox;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;See what 10M+ investors are talking about. Get the Stocktwits Daily Rip for what retail is watching right now, free to your inbox&quot;}\" class=\"link \">See what 10M+ investors are talking about. Get the Stocktwits Daily Rip for what retail is watching right now, free to your inbox<\/a><\/p>\n<p>      <strong>ASTS, SPCE Emerge As Top Bearish Space Bets<\/strong>    <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">According to S3 Partners, SpaceX&#8217;s long-awaited listing removes a key dynamic that had shaped space investing for years. &#8220;SpaceX&#8217;s record IPO removes the central constraint of the &#8216;space trade&#8217; \u2014 for years it meant buying public proxies because the category leader wasn&#8217;t listed,&#8221; the firm said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">With SPCX now publicly traded and borrowing costs estimated at just 1%-3% annually, investors no longer need to rely on smaller space stocks to gain or hedge exposure to the sector.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">&#8220;Short interest sorts by business maturity, not the &#8216;space&#8217; label,&#8221; the firm said, noting that pre-revenue and milestone-dependent companies such as ASTS, SPCE and Intuitive Machines (LUNR) carry some of the sector&#8217;s highest short-interest levels. ASTS currently has about 54 million shares sold short, up 41% year-to-date, while SPCE&#8217;s short position has surged 86% to 28 million shares.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Notably, S3 identified both as among the sector&#8217;s clearest outright bearish trades. &#8220;At the genuinely directional shorts \u2014 AST SpaceMobile&#8217;s +41% build and Virgin Galactic&#8217;s +86% \u2014 the short side outran the long,&#8221; the report said. S3 estimates only about 22% of ASTS short interest related to convertible-bond arbitrage strategies.<\/p>\n<p>      <strong>RKLB, VSAT Shorts Retreat As Fundamentals Improve<\/strong>     <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">While Intuitive Machines (LUNR) remains heavily shorted with 35 million shares sold short, bullish investors have been buying faster than bears. Passive ownership has surged 101% year-to-date, while active and hedge fund long positions have risen 52% and 97%, respectively, outpacing the stock&#8217;s 34% increase in short interest. &#8220;Intuitive Machines is the clearest case: every long cohort grew faster than its +34% short build YTD,&#8221; S3 said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Meanwhile, Rocket Lab (RKLB) and Viasat (VSAT) both saw shorts reduce positions over the past year as investors rewarded stronger operating fundamentals. &#8220;Rocket Lab and Viasat, the cash-generating operators, ran the other way: shorts covered both over the past month and YTD,&#8221; S3 said. Short interest declined 22% year-to-date in RKLB and 26% in VSAT, even as passive ownership held steady or increased.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">&#8220;Shorts are building, but passive longs are buying faster \u2014 the bears keep getting absorbed,&#8221; S3 said. That trend is especially visible in stocks such as LUNR and Planet Labs (PL), where long ownership has continued to outpace short growth.<\/p>\n<p>     <strong>How Do Retail Traders Feel About Space Stocks?<\/strong>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">On Stocktwits, retail sentiment was &#8216;bullish&#8217; on SPCX amid &#8216;extremely high&#8217; message volume, while ASTS, SPCE and RKLB were &#8216;bullish&#8217; amid &#8216;high&#8217; message volume, VSAT and PL were &#8216;bearish&#8217; amid &#8216;high&#8217; message volume, and LUNR was &#8216;neutral&#8217; amid &#8216;high&#8217; message volume.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Over the past year, PL has surged 428%, VSAT has gained 377%, RKLB is up 294%, LUNR has climbed 116%, ASTS has advanced 96%, and SPCE has risen 9%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Read Next: <a href=\"https:\/\/stocktwits.com\/news-articles\/markets\/equity\/rklb-retail-unfazed-launch-delay-90th-electron-mission\/cZK0NX8R7Ie\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:RKLB Stock Jumps Overnight: Retail Unfazed By Launch Delay Of Rocket Lab&#039;s 90th Electron Mission;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;RKLB Stock Jumps Overnight&quot;}\" class=\"link \">RKLB Stock Jumps Overnight: Retail Unfazed By Launch Delay Of Rocket Lab&#8217;s 90th Electron Mission <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Deepti Sri has no position in any of the stocks mentioned in this article. StockTwits&#8217; news team content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. For more, see our <a href=\"https:\/\/stocktwits.com\/about-newsroom\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:editorial policy;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;editorial policy&quot;}\" class=\"link \">editorial policy<\/a>. This article was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/stocktwits.com\/news\/articles\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:StockTwits;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;StockTwits&quot;}\" class=\"link \">StockTwits<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><strong>Related:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"S3 identified ASTS and SPCE as the sector&#8217;s clearest directional short bets. LUNR remains heavily shorted, but long&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1032859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[72079,72080,51,284971,276541,16,15,48321],"class_list":["post-1032858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ast-spacemobile","tag-asts","tag-business","tag-lunr","tag-spce","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-virgin-galactic"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116766742209540735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1032858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1032859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1032858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1032858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1032858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}