Arguably one of the most prominent and striking images to come out of last Monday’s second presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, which took place inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., was that of three front row attendees: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg -- the newly minted "broligarchs." All three Big Tech billionaires have been far from shy with their support -- though some more reluctant than others -- for the MAGA leader. With promises of tax cuts and free reign for venture capitalists, a Trumped-up U.S. could be ideal for the wealthy.
Early last week, I looked at Musk’s Tesla’s (TSLA) popularity in the options pits, and so thought it’d be interesting to dig into another "broligarch" name. With Meta Platforms (META) also appearing on Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White’s list of stocks with the highest options volume over the past two weeks, the choice was clear.
This week, all eyes were on Meta’s fourth-quarter earnings report, which came out after the close on Wednesday, Jan. 29. Handing out another positive earnings per share of $8.02 versus the estimated $6.77, META continued its streak of not posting an earnings miss since February 2023 -- making this report its eighth consecutive beat. In response, the equity gained 1.6% on Thursday, logging its fifth post-earnings pop over the past two years.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported Trump signed a settlement agreement requiring Meta to pay around $25 million to resolve a 2021 lawsuit. Trump had filed the suit after the platform suspended his accounts on the heels of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack. Of that amount, $22 million is expected to go toward Trump’s presidential library, while the remainder will cover legal fees. Notably, Meta is not required to admit wrongdoing.
Unsurprisingly, META has been highly coveted among options traders, for what seems like forever. A consistent figure on White’s list of stocks with the highest options volume over the past 10 trading days, META saw over 3.1 million calls and 1.6 million puts traded. During this time frame, the January 650 call was the most popular contract, while the top open interest (OI) contract was the weekly 1/15 1,250-strike call. With earnings out of the way, options are looking like an affordable way to go. This is per Meta Platforms stock’s Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 30%, which sits in the 14th percentile of its annual range.

Echoing this call-heavy sentiment, the equity’s 50-day call/put volume ratio of 2.01 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) ranks higher than all annual readings. Further, the security’s Schaeffer’s Volatility Scorecard (SVS) sits at a low 34 out of 100, making it a prime premium-selling candidate for those looking to cash in on these record highs.
Meta Platforms stock has been trending mostly higher since its pullback to $100 in November 2022, which also happened to be the site of its 2016 lows. At the time of this writing, the equity is trading at record highs -- less than two weeks after Trump was sworn into office, and amid more artificial intelligence (AI) growth plans from the Facebook founder himself. This recent surge has pushed the shares above the $625 level, a ceiling that capped a mid-December breakout attempt, with multi-month support stemming from an uptrend line that formed in late July. Conversely, the equity has broken out of a recent overhead trendline of resistance that formed in late 2024. META is up 75% year over year, fresh off 2024’s 12-month gain of 65.4%, and has only logged two yearly losses since its 2012 initial public offering (IPO) at $38.

During Trump’s first term, META grew roughly 78.3% between the November 2016 election and January 2020 inauguration of former President Joe Biden. Measuring from Thursday’s close of $687, should the metaverse leader match this growth over the next four years, it could be trading at an unprecedented $1,229.73 by 2029. Mind you, this is without taking into account any excess support from Trump policies that directly support a "hands off" approach in the billionaire-ran Big Tech sector. Last Friday, Zuckerberg also laid out plans for "investing in the years ahead," sharing that Meta plans to put $60 to $65 billion worth of capital into its AI infrastructure. In simpler terms, Big Tech traders should be eager to see exactly what another Trump takeover has in store for the broligarchs.