SpaceX Short Sellers Exist, But Few Dare Bet Against Musk
About 40 million SpaceX shares are sold short, representing 5-7% of available float, per S3 Partners.
Shorting SpaceX takes guts. Despite growing interest from bears, most traders are still keeping their hands off Elon Musk's rocket company — and the numbers back that up.
According to estimates from S3 Partners, roughly 40 million SpaceX shares are currently sold short. That works out to somewhere between 5% and 7% of the shares actually available to trade. In the short-selling world, that's notable activity — but it's still a far cry from the kind of conviction you'd see in a heavily targeted stock.
Read more Prediction Markets Raise Insider Trading Red Flags for Wall Street →
The hesitation makes sense. Musk's track record of defying bears is well-documented. Tesla short sellers lost billions over the years betting against him. SpaceX carries that same psychological weight, even though it operates in a different arena entirely — one with massive government contracts, a dominant launch market position, and the Starlink cash machine running underneath it all.
Still, the fact that any meaningful short interest exists at all is worth watching. SpaceX shares trade in private secondary markets, so access is limited compared to public equities. Getting a borrow to short is harder, and the friction alone keeps many bears on the sidelines regardless of their conviction. The 5-7% float short figure could actually represent more bearish sentiment than that number implies at face value.
Whether the shorts are early or just brave is the open question. For now, the crowd is still mostly long Musk — or at least too nervous to say otherwise. Continue reading at US Top News and Analysis.
