Meta Is Underperforming Every Trillion-Dollar Stock but Tesla. This Trade Pays You While Wall Street Waits It Out.

Meta Is Underperforming Every Trillion-Dollar Stock but Tesla. This Trade Pays You While Wall Street Waits It Out. Rick Orford Mon, September 7, 2026 at 3:14 PM GMT+2 4 min read META TSLA Meta Platforms by Primakov via Shutterstock Meta Platforms  (META) is not having a good year.

Down 7%, it's trailing most trillion-dollar companies year-to-date - except  Tesla (TSLA).   Screenshot courtesy of www. barchart.

com In Meta's case, the reasons are what you'd expect. More News from Barchart Dell Stock Spiked After Earnings, But Is It Close to Fair Value? Shorting Puts and Calls Work Here Heavy, Unusual Put Options Volume in IREN after Bitcoin Rises Last Week Palo Alto Networks Delivers Strong FCF Margins - Is PANW Stock Set to Rise?

Get exclusive insights with the FREE Barchart Brief newsletter. Subscribe now for quick, incisive midday market analysis you won't find anywhere else. Wall Street and investors are skittish about the company's capex, which is expected to fall between $130 billion and $145 billion this year.

And while revenue is growing, the bottom line is already starting to reflect this spending spree. Screenshot courtesy of www. barchart.

com Now, this is likely a temporary bear run - which is a perfect trading environment for options traders. Since options are timed contracts, you can take advantage of short-term trends while perhaps maintaining a long position on a stock that you believe in. So, let's take a look at the best options strategy to profit from Meta's current price weakness - the bear call spread.

Why The Bear Call Spread Is Your Friend in This Situation A bear call, also known as a call credit spread, is an options strategy that involves selling a call option and then buying another one with a higher strike price, all on the same underlying asset with the same expiration date. The goal is for the asset to trade below the short strike price at expiration. If that happens, the credit received at the start of the trade becomes crystallized profit.

On the other hand, if the asset trades above the long strike by expiration, the trade ends at the maximum loss. Anything between these two strike prices will be a partial profit or loss, depending on how much credit you received and how far away the strikes are (width of the spread). So, with that laid out, we begin by setting the short and long strike prices above Meta's current $616.

77 trading price. But how far above should you put it while still making a reasonable profit? Finding High-Probability Meta Bear Call Trades Here's how Barchart's Option Screener tool can help.

For this strategy, you can access it from the stock's page, then click Vertical Spreads on the left-hand side of the screen. Screenshot courtesy of www. barchart.

com Once there, you can just click the Bear Call tab, then change the expiration date. Screenshot courtesy of www. barchart.

com Typically, I like to sell bear calls that expire 30 to 45 days out. That way, I can benefit from the higher time value and have time to adjust the trade if needed. So, in this case, I'll set the expiration date to October 16, 41 days away from the time of publication.

Story Continues Screenshot courtesy of www. barchart. com Right then and there, the default screener view gives me a balanced choice of trades to start with.

Now, I can check other tools and features on Barchart to help me decide on the strike prices. But honestly, sometimes the top one on the default screener list - which is arranged based on lowest loss probability - already gives the best potential trade at the moment. Screenshot courtesy of www.

barchart. com So let's break that down. Meta 670-700 Bear Call Trade Breakdown Screenshot courtesy of www.

barchart. com According to the screener, you can sell a 670-700 call credit spread on Meta expiring October 16. The trade results in a net credit and max profit of $510 total, which crystallizes as long as Meta trades below $670 at expiration.

Remember, you receive the net credit at the start of the trade, but the actual profit is realized only after the trade is closed or expires with both calls out of the money. On the other hand, the maximum loss of $2,490 happens if Meta trades at or above $700 at expiration. This represents a 4.

88 to 1 risk/reward ratio, which is more than fair in most circumstances. Overall, the trade has a 75% chance of max profit and a 15% chance of a max loss, which are fairly good odds to me. And if we take a quick look at Meta's Expected Move, we'll see that the stock is expected to trade between $566 and $667 by October 16.

That means the 670 short call is still above the expected move by a $3 margin - enough to help me sleep better at night. Final Thoughts Meta's rough year boils down to investor concerns, which you really can't avoid in this market. After all, AI spending is at an all-time high, and market participants are worried that eventual profits aren't enough to cover them.

Now, this bear call trade doesn't represent a bearish long-term stance on Meta. In fact, analysts still rate it a "Strong Buy" with a $1,000 high target price in the next twelve months. But that's the keyword there - 12 months.

For the next 41 days, Meta might struggle as investors stay cautious, especially with the next earnings report due October 28, well past the trade's expiration date. And that's exactly what this bear call trade is taking advantage of - the short-term fear. But, like with any options trade, position size matters, and outcomes can shift fast on news.

So always keep an eye on your positions. On the date of publication, Rick Orford did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes.

This article was originally published on Barchart.