What does a Katapult and a satellite have in common? In short, they could both squeeze cash.

Wednesday Captain Kirk was launched into space. Within a few moments, he watched the blue sky turn into a black void full of nearby satellites. Perhaps even some created by Globalstar, Inc. (AMEX:GSAT). Regardless, he was rapidly sent back to Earth - with the thrust as strong as that from an unbound Katapult (NASDAQ:KPLT).

Mission Failure Is Not An Option

Interestingly enough today Globalstar is poised to blast off “to the moon” as the saying goes. The short interest is over 53 million and available shares hovers at 10 million per Ortex. This is a perfect setup for a squeeze. The ever rare gamma squeeze.

Options orbiting expiration today are at an out of this world amount. Currently, the share price for Globalstar is locked around $1.60. TD Ameritrade lists the total open interest at over 19,000 leading up to the $1.50 strike price. Advancing to the next strike, the $2 mark has over 36,000 calls. Next is 39,000 at $2.50. But the real gravity hits at $3 where over 96,000 calls have open interest.

Share Trek - Wrath Of Retailers

If by some odd chance a rally warps the share price over $3, there are approximately 190,000 in play. Remember those 10 million shares? They could be gone very quickly. Especially if the notorious Reddit Apes catch on.

Back On Earth: Visiting The Greeks

For shorts of Katapult (NASDAQ:KPLT), could find another interpretation of the Buy Now, Pay Later style of capital access like the namesake company provides. Retailers would really like to hit caps lock, underscore, bold, and increase the font size of “Pay”. 

There is a boulder size of short interest. With approximately 12.6 million shares short and only 350,000 shares available per TD Ameritrade, having an onslaught of 2,688,752 shares failed to deliver for today’s settlement date (per sec.gov) is going to take more than any phalanx could deflect. And there’s also the problem of contracts….specifically gamma... that not even Sparta could defend.

Madness? “This. Is. Start Of.”

Leading up to the $5 strike, there are over 6,000 contracts. With a close Thursday at $5.18, that’s not super intimidating. But past $6? Add 19,000 contracts. $7? Another 19,000 calls.

Referencing back to the short interest versus shares available: at $7 Katapult stock is going to go ballistic.

From Above And Below

It doesn’t matter which enterprise it is, someone may need a loan to pay things back - even if these scenarios could be seen as a long shot. About the author: