Benzinga | Nov 30, 2021 04:12PM EST

This Is What Whales Are Betting On Cleveland-Cliffs

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF).

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 CLF, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 12 options trades for Cleveland-Cliffs.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 25.0% bullish and 75.0%, bearish.

Out of all of the options we uncovered, there was 1 put, for a total amount of $27,550.00, and 11, calls, for a total amount of $507,617.00..

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 $7.0 to $35.0 for Cleveland-Cliffs over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Cleveland-Cliffs options trades today is 8182.45 with a total volume of 3,717.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Cleveland-Cliffs's big money trades within a strike price range of $7.0 to $35.0 over the last 30 days.

Cleveland-Cliffs 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 InterestCLF CALL SWEEP BEARISH 04/14/ $25.00 $93.0K 17.7K 20 22CLF CALL SWEEP BULLISH 04/14/ $20.00 $57.0K 4.6K 43 22CLF CALL SWEEP BEARISH 07/15/ $20.00 $54.6K 187 0 22CLF CALL TRADE BEARISH 01/21/ $7.00 $51.8K 20.7K 95 22CLF CALL TRADE BEARISH 01/20/ $30.00 $50.5K 6.4K 211 23

Where Is Cleveland-Cliffs Standing Right Now?

* With a volume of 10,703,749.00, the price of CLF is down -2.88% at $21.21.

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

* Next earnings are expected to be released in 87 days.

What The Experts Say On Cleveland-Cliffs:

* Wolfe Research downgraded its action to Outperform with a price target of $30.0

* Morgan Stanley has decided to maintain their Equal-Weight rating on Cleveland-Cliffs, which currently sits at a price target of $23.5.

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.