NuScale Power Plummets 8.8% Amid Regulatory Uncertainty and Profit-Taking Pressure

Summary
• NuScale Power (SMR) drops 8.8% intraday to $40.90, erasing a 24% 7-day rally
• Landmark 6GW SMR partnership with TVA and ENTRA1 Energy announced
• Broker upgrade and U.S. Army Janus program cited as prior catalysts

Today’s sharp selloff in NuScale Power reflects a volatile mix of profit-taking and lingering valuation skepticism. Despite historic SMR deployment deals and regulatory milestones, the stock’s 8.8% decline underscores investor caution ahead of commercialization risks. With intraday trading between $40.83 and $43.99, the move highlights the sector’s sensitivity to execution timelines and funding clarity.

Regulatory Hurdles and Profit-Taking Weigh on NuScale's Momentum
NuScale’s selloff follows a 24% 7-day surge driven by the TVA-ENTRA1 6GW SMR partnership and U.S. Army Janus program optimism. However, profit-taking pressure intensified as the stock approached its 52-week high of $57.42, with analysts questioning whether its $40.90 price reflects overvaluation. The Simply Wall St narrative estimates a fair value of $40.84, suggesting the market has already priced in aggressive growth assumptions. Meanwhile, uncertainty over securing long-term contracts and funding for commercial deployment—NuScale has yet to operate a reactor—has amplified volatility. The drop also coincides with insider selling and a 162.73% implied volatility spike in options, signaling short-term speculative caution.

Nuclear Sector Volatility as Exelon Trails NuScale's Drop
The nuclear power sector remains mixed, with Exelon (EXC) down 0.99% as of 16:27 ET. While NuScale’s selloff reflects speculative profit-taking, Exelon’s decline aligns with broader energy sector weakness amid softening demand for traditional nuclear operators. NuScale’s SMR-focused model contrasts with Exelon’s legacy fleet, highlighting divergent risk profiles. The sector’s 5.5% turnover rate for NuScale underscores its speculative nature compared to Exelon’s established utility framework.

Options Playbook: Capitalizing on NuScale's Volatility
• MACD: 0.61 (bullish divergence), Signal Line: 0.51, Histogram: 0.097 (positive momentum)
• RSI: 49.8 (neutral), Bollinger Bands: $33.34–$50.56 (wide range), 200D MA: $30.46 (below price)
• Support/Resistance: 30D $38.09–$38.46, 200D $34.65–$35.46

Key levels to watch: NuScale’s 200-day average at $30.46 and Bollinger Band lower bound at $33.34. Short-term volatility suggests a range-bound setup, with RSI hovering near neutrality. Aggressive traders may consider the SMR20251107P40 put option (strike $40, expiring 11/7) and SMR20251107P41.5 put (strike $41.50) for bearish exposure. Both contracts offer high leverage and liquidity amid elevated implied volatility.

Top Option 1: SMR20251107P40
• Code: SMR20251107P40, Type: Put, Strike: $40, Expiry: 2025-11-07
• IV: 161.37% (high volatility), Leverage: 15.06%, Delta: -0.426 (moderate sensitivity), Theta: -0.136 (rapid time decay), Gamma: 0.051 (price sensitivity), Turnover: $318,550
• Payoff at 5% downside (ST = $38.86): $1.14 per contract. This put offers asymmetric upside if NuScale breaks below $40, leveraging high IV and liquidity.

Top Option 2: SMR20251107P41.5
• Code: SMR20251107P41.5, Type: Put, Strike: $41.50, Expiry: 2025-11-07
• IV: 142.40% (moderate), Leverage: 12.91%, Delta: -0.514 (high sensitivity), Theta: -0.073 (slow decay), Gamma: 0.059 (strong price response), Turnover: $219,927
• Payoff at 5% downside (ST = $38.86): $2.64 per contract. This contract’s high gamma and moderate IV make it ideal for a sharp selloff, with turnover ensuring liquidity.

Hook: If $39.50 breaks, SMR20251107P40 offers short-side potential. Aggressive bulls may consider SMR20251107C39 into a bounce above $41.50.

Backtest NuScale Power Stock Performance
Below is an interactive module that presents the back-test configuration and results for the “–9 % Intraday Plunge Rebound” strategy on NuScale Power (SMR) from 2022-01-03 through 2025-11-03. Please explore the panel for full statistics, trade list, and equity-curve visualisations.Key take-aways (beyond the raw numbers you can inspect in the module):• Outstanding compounded return but accompanied by very high volatility and a 75 % historical draw-down—this strategy is aggressively high-risk.• Pay special attention to trade dispersion: performance is dominated by a handful of outsized winners (max single-trade gain ≈ 17×). Losses, while capped at –15 %, can still erode capital quickly during adverse periods.• Consider layering additional exit logic (time stop or profit-taking) or reducing position size to moderate risk.Let me know if you would like to adjust parameters (e.g., different stop-loss, add a take-profit, or test other plunge thresholds) or dig deeper into individual trade paths.

NuScale at Crossroads: Watch $39.5 Support and Exelon's Lead
NuScale’s 8.8% drop tests critical support near $39.50, with a breakdown below $38.09 likely to trigger deeper selling. The stock’s -184 PE ratio and lack of commercial revenue remain red flags, but its 279% 3-year total return suggests resilience. Investors should monitor the SMR20251107P40 and SMR20251107P41.5 options for directional bets, while tracking Exelon’s -0.99% move as a sector barometer. A rebound above $43.99 intraday high could reignite optimism, but execution risks—like the canceled Carbon Free Power Project—remain. Action: Watch for $39.50 support or a breakdown to $34.65. Position in SMR20251107P40 if $40.50 is breached.