Crude oil crossed $90 per barrel. Energy stocks in the S&P 500 are near 52-week highs. Some alternative energy stock nobody bothered to name in the headline is getting more options volume than SpaceX.
Retail traders saw oil go up and decided this was their moment. Not their moment to buy oil. Not their moment to buy energy majors with actual dividends. Their moment to pile into call options on whatever alternative energy ticker happened to flash green on their screener while oil ripped higher.
SpaceX doesn't trade publicly. The options pits reference is about synthetic exposure through related tickers or private market instruments that approximately seven people have access to. Doesn't matter. The headline needed a comparison that would make you click.
Here's what happened. Oil went up because oil always goes up when everyone forgets it can go up. Energy stocks followed. Retail saw the move. Retail bought calls. Retail bought calls on the alternative energy name because it had higher implied volatility and cheaper premiums than the actual oil producers doing the thing that makes money when oil costs $90.
The options volume spike means nothing. High volume on calls is not bullish. It's not bearish. It's just noise from people who confused activity with edge. They bought lottery tickets and called it trading.
The stock will do what the stock will do. The chart doesn't care that options volume went up. The chart doesn't read headlines about options volume. The chart especially doesn't care that some alternative energy play got more action than synthetic SpaceX exposure.
Oil hit $90 because supply tightened or demand increased or someone sneezed in the Middle East. Energy stocks went up because that's what energy stocks do when oil goes up. Everything else is just retail traders funding someone's lake house.
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