, August 21, 2026

Short Sellers Discover Betting Against Rockets Also Risky


Short interest in SpaceX fell to about 11% of the company's publicly traded shares Wednesday, down sharply from a peak of 34% last week, according to S3.

  •   1 min read
Short Sellers Discover Betting Against Rockets Also Risky

Short interest in SpaceX dropped from 34% to 11% in a week. The stock rebounded 40% off its low. Turns out the people who borrowed shares to bet against a company that lands orbital rockets on floating platforms might have miscalculated their risk tolerance.

These geniuses saw a space company's stock dip and thought they found easy money. Shorted it at 34% of the float. Then watched the thing climb 40% while their accounts melted like the heat shield on a poorly designed capsule.

The math here is beautiful. You borrow shares at one price. The price goes up 40%. You now owe shares worth 40% more than when you started. Someone at S3 had to track this data and write it down with a straight face. That person deserves hazard pay.

Short sellers love to talk about fundamentals and valuation and how the market has lost its mind. Then SpaceX builds another rocket, launches another satellite, and the chart goes up. Their fundamental analysis did not account for the part where the company actually does the thing it says it will do.

The remaining 11% still holding their shorts are in a special kind of hell. They watched 23% of their fellow travelers cover their positions and run. They're still here. Still convinced they're right. Still watching their borrowed shares appreciate in value. Still paying borrow fees. Still explaining to their spouse why the investment account looks like that.

This is what happens when you bet against a company owned by someone who treats money like Monopoly currency and has already proven he'll do the objectively insane thing just to make a point. You don't short that. You just don't.

The longs are going to frame this data and hang it in their bathrooms.

Photo by on Unsplash

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