I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.SpaceX options traded 1,368,800 contracts, 1.31 times the 20-day average. Three large call trades cleared the screen, and the put/call ratio of 0.87 sat above its 20-day average of 0.70.
$SpaceX(SPCX.US)$ options traded 1,368,800 contracts in Friday's U.S. session on Oct. 16, 1.31 times the 20-day average of 1,042,000. Calls accounted for 731,400 contracts and puts for 637,400, leaving the put side at 1.51 times its average against 1.18 times for calls. The put/call ratio rose to 0.87, above the 20-day average of 0.70. Total open interest (OI) stood at 4,873,400 contracts, above the upper bound of its 20-day range. The put/call open interest ratio of 1.01 fell below both the 1.09 average and the 1.02 lower bound of that range.
The large trades
The screen covered 120 contracts across 4 expiries between 7 and 90 days out, with strikes within about ±6.1% of the close. To qualify, a contract needed full-session volume of at least 5,000 contracts, premium of at least $1 million, a volume-to-open-interest ratio of at least 2.0, 7 to 90 days to expiration and an absolute delta between 0.15 and 0.80. Three trades met that high-liquidity bar, all on the call side, for $15.32 million in premium; the put side produced no matches. All 3 sat on the Oct. 23 expiry, seven days out. The next-largest contract by volume in the same universe was the Oct. 23 $140 put, at 13,800 contracts on the session and a vol/OI of 1.76, short of the threshold. Calls dominated, but the session was not one-sided.
Trades worth flagging
| Contract | Full-session volume | Largest print | Open interest | Vol/OI | Premium | Side |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 23 $150 call | 15,638 | 377 | 4,011 | 3.90 | $7.07M | at the bid |
| Oct. 23 $146 call | 10,069 | 851 | 634 | 15.88 | $5.67M | at the ask |
| Oct. 23 $149 call | 5,051 | 714 | 690 | 7.32 | $2.58M | at the bid |
All three contracts traded above a volume-to-open-interest ratio of 2.0. The $146 call holds just 634 contracts of open interest, and full-session volume ran 15.88 times that level. That points to newly opened exposure rather than a rotation of existing positions; the following session's open interest will confirm. The $150 call posted a vol/OI of 3.90 against 4,011 contracts of open interest, which points the same way.
The side data comes from the print sample. For the $146 call, the final 873 prints ran from 9:30 a.m. to 3:59 p.m. ET, covering 100% of the session, and 84% of those prints went off at the ask. The largest of them, 851 contracts at $5.25, came at 2:58 p.m. ET. For the $150 call, the final 1,000 prints covered 10:34 a.m. to 3:59 p.m. ET, or 41% of the session, and split 53% at the ask against 47% at the bid. The $149 call saw 66% of its final 411 prints, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:59 p.m. ET and 99% of the session, go off at the bid. Volume in the $146 call clustered between 2:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. ET, 58% of the session.
Open interest and volatility
Within the screened universe, the heaviest call open interest sits at the $150 strike, with 25,536 contracts, while the heaviest put open interest is at $140, with 33,405. Put open interest at $150 is next in line at 29,598 contracts, so both sides overlap at that strike, forming the range the options market is pricing around. Thirty-day at-the-money implied volatility (IV) finished at 57.8%, against 51.8% historical volatility on the same contract. Using the 85% straddle convention, the Nov. 20 expiry implies a move of roughly ±12.2%, a band of $128 to $164.
How to read this, and how not to
A large call trade is not, by itself, evidence that institutions are bullish. The same fill can come from a covered-call writer, one leg of a spread, or a hedge against a long stock position. Direction needs at least three confirmations: whether the trade went off at the bid or the ask, whether open interest rises the following session, and whether the opposing strike saw size at the same time. This article reports publicly available trade data and the screen used to select it. It is not investment advice.
Source: publicly reported U.S. options trades. Coverage window: regular U.S. trading hours, Oct. 16, 2026. Universe: 4 expiries from 7 to 90 days out, strikes within about ±6.1% of the close, 120 contracts. Screen: full-session volume of at least 5,000 contracts, premium of at least $1 million, a volume-to-open-interest ratio of 2.0 or higher, 7 to 90 days to expiration, absolute delta between 0.15 and 0.80.