Traders work in the S&P options pit at the CBOE Global Markets Exchange on Thursday, November 13, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Christopher Dilts | Bloomberg | Getty Images
So much for September’s seasonal doldrums.
Options traders are piling on bullish bets on a handful of privately traded stocks known for big price movements and speculative activity, leading to the worst month in stock history.
Volume on Thursday was above average for the following stocks: robinhood market, Palantir Technologies And Elon Musk’s Giants tesla and space x These were the No. 1 and No. 4 traded stocks, respectively, by options trading volume.
Trade flow is clearly bullish, with calls outnumbering puts by at least 2 to 1 each. While each stock has its own unique story, traders may also be taking advantage of a sharp drop in implied volatility. S&P500 and as a single strain CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) It trades below 15.
Robinhood, a soaring trading platform stock popular with retail traders, is the most publicly bullish of these four stocks in Thursday trading. Through midday, calls were trading more than twice as much as puts, and calls were being bought nearly three times as much as puts. Nominally, put sales outnumber put purchases, indicating confident bullish sentiment among traders, whose average daily trading volume has more than tripled.
HOODFrom the beginning of the year to today
Robinhood stock is suddenly positive, a year after Thursday’s big rally, and it’s just shy of its year-to-date high.
Similarly, at Palantir, the rise in large-cap stocks is leading to an increase in options trading. This software stock ranks among the top 10 most traded single stock options with nearly double its average daily trading volume. Traders are buying twice as many calls as puts, and selling more puts than buying them.
But ahead of tonight’s Tesla CyberCab event in Austin, Texas, it’s all about mask mania. Tesla and SpaceX traders are buying twice as many calls as puts, and selling significantly more puts than buying.
SpaceX’s move comes as the stock has regained the key $150 level, which it has not closed above since early July. It also comes with significantly lower volatility. SpaceX’s current 30-day implied volatility is only in the 4th percentile, about half of its historical average since going public on June 12.
“Bitcoin ripping was great for Robinhood, and Snowflake was a catalyst for Palantir,” said Charles Moon, momentum trading specialist at Prosper Trading Academy. “Retail is getting aggressive because all it needs is a reason. That’s a good sign.”
