No, the money would be made in the futures market. Keep a competent mission secret and short futures contracts. Profits would be locked in long before launch.

No, the money would be made in the futures market. Keep a competent mission secret and short futures contracts. Profits would be locked in long before launch. One might say that strange huge bets in the futures markets would be the signal of a credible future mission - but BBs, CBs and BIS do that all the time, because they can put illegal naked shorts and rehypothecate where necessary (i.e. print paper gold contracts as if they had really mined an asteroid). Asteroid mining is kinda the plot of Goldfinger, but in reverse. Don't go long and restrict supply with a nuclear detonation in Fort Knox (not that it has any unencumbered gold LOL), just short the metal and flood supply from the heavens.