Benzinga | Dec 20, 2021 10:36AM EST

Alibaba Group Holding Whale Trades For December 20

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Alibaba Group Holding (NYSE:BABA).

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 BABA, 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 31 uncommon options trades for Alibaba Group Holding.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 29% bullish and 70%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 25 are puts, for a total amount of $5,084,473, and 6 are calls, for a total amount of $545,024.

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 $20.0 to $280.0 for Alibaba Group Holding over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Alibaba Group Holding options trades today is 5833.57 with a total volume of 15,187.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Alibaba Group Holding's big money trades within a strike price range of $20.0 to $280.0 over the last 30 days.

Alibaba Group Holding 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 InterestBABA PUT SWEEP NEUTRAL 04/14/ $160.00 $1.7M 4.3K 380 22BABA PUT SWEEP NEUTRAL 06/17/ $140.00 $1.2M 10.7K 390 22BABA CALL SWEEP BULLISH 01/20/ $180.00 $323.4K 7.2K 916 23BABA PUT SWEEP BEARISH 01/21/ $280.00 $309.8K 17.9K 0 22BABA PUT TRADE NEUTRAL 06/17/ $175.00 $305.0K 3.5K 207 22

Where Is Alibaba Group Holding Standing Right Now?

* With a volume of 5,362,601, the price of BABA is down -4.35% at $116.79.

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

* Next earnings are expected to be released in 43 days.

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.