Benzinga | Nov 19, 2021 12:15PM EST

What Are Whales Doing With Bank of America

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bullish stance on Bank of America (NYSE:BAC).

And retail traders should know.

We noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.

Whether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual, we don't know. But when something this big happens with BAC, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

So how do we know what this whale just did?

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 18 uncommon options trades for Bank of America.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 55.56% bullish and 44.44%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 6 are puts, for a total amount of $422,216.00, and 12 are calls, for a total amount of $1,137,396.00.

What's The Price Target?

Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts, it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from $37.0 to $50.0 for Bank of America over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

Looking at the volume and open interest is a powerful move while trading options. This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Bank of America's options for a given strike price. Below, we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts, respectively, for all of Bank of America's whale trades within a strike price range from $37.0 to $50.0 in the last 30 days.

Bank of America Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days

Biggest Options Spotted:

Symbol PUT/ Trade Sentiment Exp. Strike Total Trade Open Volume CALL Type Date Price Price InterestBAC CALL TRADE BULLISH 11/19/ $37.00 $556.7K 2.9K 2.1K 21BAC PUT TRADE BULLISH 01/21/ $45.00 $137.9K 18.4K 1.0K 22BAC PUT TRADE BULLISH 01/21/ $45.00 $123.0K 18.4K 1.6K 22BAC CALL SWEEP BEARISH 01/20/ $37.00 $89.0K 17.7K 111 23BAC CALL TRADE BEARISH 01/21/ $46.00 $81.3K 5.9K 2.1K 22

Where Is Bank of America Standing Right Now?

* With a volume of 23,815,630.00, the price of BAC is down -1.93% at $45.42.

* RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching oversold.

* Next earnings are expected to be released in 61 days.

What The Experts Say On Bank of America:

* Baird downgraded its action to Underperform with a price target of $42.0

* Wells Fargo has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Bank of America, which currently sits at a price target of $60.0.

Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock, but they have higher profit potential. Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily, scaling in and out of trades, following more than one indicator, and following the markets closely.

If you are already an options trader or would like to get started, head on over to Benzinga Pro. Benzinga Pro gives you up-to-date news and analytics to empower your investing and trading strategy.