Listen to the audio version of this article (generated by AI).

Editor’s Note: A few weeks ago, my colleague veteran trader Jonathan Rose urged readers not to get swept up in the excitement surrounding the SpaceX IPO. Now that the deal is done, he believes an even bigger opportunity is taking shape.

I asked Jonathan to clarify in today’s Smart Money that the IPO isn’t the main story — instead, it’s what SpaceX plans to do with the money.

He also shares three stocks he believes stand to benefit as the communications industry adapts to a new reality and explains why this is exactly the kind of second-order market shift he and Wall Street veteran Marc Chaikin built their Convergence system to identify.

If you missed their recent presentation, you can still catch the replay here.

Now, here’s Jonathan…

A few weeks ago, AT&T Inc. (T) dropped more than 4% in a single day.

The headlines blamed a Wall Street analyst.

Oppenheimer’s Timothy Horan had just downgraded the stock after warning that the Starlink satellite constellation business at the newly public Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SPCX) could permanently reshape the communications industry.

Most investors treated that downgrade as the news. I didn’t.

One of the first lessons I learned during nearly three decades trading on the floors in Chicago is that analyst upgrades and downgrades rarely start major trends. More often, they describe those trends after institutional investors – the “smart money” – have already begun repositioning.

Indeed, by the time Horan published his report, AT&T had been sliding for months. His downgrade was reacting to a move that had already begun.

So instead of asking why one analyst had suddenly turned bearish on AT&T, I started asking a different question: How much damage can SpaceX actually do to AT&T and the telecom industry now that it’s sitting on roughly $75 billion in fresh capital?

That question sent me down a rabbit hole. I spent the weekend reading telecom company filings, earnings calls, analyst reports, insider transactions… and SpaceX’s S-1 IPO filing.

I want to share some of my findings with you today.

I’ll explain why I think the SpaceX IPO may permanently reshape the communications business…

Show you how my newest system helps identify opportunities behind these kinds of shifts in the market…

And introduce you to three companies I believe could benefit from that shift.

Starlink Is the Opportunity, Not the IPO

When SpaceX went public, most of the financial media focused on the obvious questions.

Is the valuation too high? Will the share price pop or drop? Who gets rich?

That’s all great water-cooler chatter. But as a trader, I want to know what SpaceX plans to do with the $75 billion it raised.

The answer isn’t more rockets. It’s more Starlink.

For years, Starlink was viewed as an interesting side business, a satellite internet service serving rural customers and places traditional broadband couldn’t easily reach. Today, it’s something much bigger.

It’s the only consistently profitable part of SpaceX’s business. And with fresh capital from the IPO, it suddenly has the resources to expand much more aggressively.

That’s bad news if you’ve spent the last 20 years building expensive fiber networks.

Starlink can connect customers for a fraction of what traditional providers spend on extending broadband into new markets. While cable and telecom companies continue investing billions in wires, trenches, and infrastructure, Starlink is adding subscribers from orbit.

The economics simply aren’t the same.

Here’s what I think happens next.

Every Winner Creates a Loser

One thing markets have taught me is that every technological breakthrough creates two groups of stocks: the obvious winners and the companies quietly losing relevance.

When automobiles replaced horses, investors shouldn’t have focused only on Ford Motor Co. (F). They also should have asked what happened to buggy-whip manufacturers.

Today, we’re seeing a similar transition in telecommunications. Companies like AT&T, Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), and Lumen Technologies Inc. (LUMN) spent decades building infrastructure designed for a different era.

Meanwhile, SpaceX just raised enough capital to dramatically accelerate a competing network built on entirely different economics.

The tape – these stocks’ share prices – recognized that before many analysts did.

That’s why I try to ignore the headlines and pay more attention to second-order effects.

The biggest opportunity is often in understanding which businesses are quietly becoming more valuable – and which ones aren’t.

Three Stocks I’m Watching

So, instead of chasing SpaceX, I’ve been looking at the businesses helping build the next phase of this ecosystem.

One name that continues to interest me is Sunrun Inc. (RUN).

Shortly after the SpaceX IPO, Tesla Inc. (TSLA) and Sunrun announced a framework to aggregate more than 16 gigawatts of home energy capacity for utilities and hyperscale AI customers. The market noticed immediately. Sunrun surged, and my Unusual Trading Activity confirmed the smart money was paying attention as well.

I’m also watching NextNav Inc. (NN).

This has been one of my favorite infrastructure stories for a while. The company controls valuable spectrum assets that become increasingly important as satellite internet expands. It’s exactly the kind of overlooked business Wall Street often reprices after a major industry shift.

And then there’s BlackSky Technology Inc. (BKSY).

As SpaceX launches more satellites and the cost of accessing space continues falling, companies that provide satellite imagery and AI-powered geospatial intelligence stand to benefit alongside it. That’s another second-order effect most investors miss while focusing on the IPO itself.

Now, let me be clear.

I’m not suggesting every company connected to SpaceX becomes a great investment. Far from it.

The opportunity isn’t simply identifying the story. It’s identifying where institutional investors and their billions of dollars are quietly building positions before everyone else recognizes the implications.

That’s an entirely different exercise.

That’s Why We Built Convergence

One phrase I use often on my livestream is this: The tape can’t hide.

Big institutional money leaves footprints. And those footprints are there long before analysts publish upgrades and long before the headlines explain what’s happening.

I’ve spent most of my career learning to recognize those footprints through unusual trading activity and volatility.

Marc Chaikin approaches the same challenge from a different direction. For decades, he’s been developing institutional money-flow tools designed to show where the big money is actually going.

When we started comparing notes, we realized we were often identifying the same opportunities from completely different angles.

I identify unusual market behavior. Marc confirms whether institutional money is moving in the same direction.

And we’ve discovered that when those signals line up – we call it a “Convergence Trigger” – our confidence changes dramatically. That’s why we combined our systems to create Convergence.

And we’re using that new system to examine the ripple effects from the SpaceX IPO and several other major AI themes we’re tracking right now.

Marc and I recently sat down to explain how we’re using the Convergence Trigger to identify these second-order opportunities before they become obvious. If you missed that free presentation, we’ve made it available again for a limited time.

I think you’ll come away with valuable stock ideas and a different way of looking at the market.

While everyone else was debating whether to buy the SpaceX IPO, I was asking what Starlink’s next move would mean for everyone else.

Bottom line: Don’t chase the headline. Trade the ripple effect.

Remember, the creative trader wins,

Jonathan Rose

Founder, Masters in Trading

P.S. One of the reasons I enjoy reading Jonathan’s work is that he never stops at the headline. He asks what happens next. That’s exactly what he did here, and it’s also the thinking behind his work with Marc Chaikin. If you haven’t seen their free presentation yet, I’d encourage you to carve out a little time for it. I think you’ll come away with a few new ways to look at the market and maybe a few opportunities you hadn’t considered.