Benzinga | Dec 31, 2021 01:24PM EST

Morgan Stanley Whale Trades Spotted

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS).

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 MS, 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 15 uncommon options trades for Morgan Stanley.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 33% bullish and 66%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 5 are puts, for a total amount of $1,044,135, and 10 are calls, for a total amount of $497,561.

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 $45.0 to $100.0 for Morgan Stanley over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Morgan Stanley options trades today is 1416.44 with a total volume of 4,874.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Morgan Stanley's big money trades within a strike price range of $45.0 to $100.0 over the last 30 days.

Morgan Stanley 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 InterestMS PUT SWEEP BEARISH 07/15/ $100.00 $395.7K 16 408 22MS PUT TRADE NEUTRAL 02/18/ $97.50 $380.0K 1.4K 1.0K 22MS PUT SWEEP BEARISH 07/15/ $100.00 $188.1K 16 1.0K 22MS CALL TRADE BULLISH 01/21/ $75.00 $96.0K 274 0 22MS CALL SWEEP BEARISH 02/18/ $60.00 $56.6K 353 40 22

Where Is Morgan Stanley Standing Right Now?

* With a volume of 2,395,914, the price of MS is down -1.21% at $97.6.

* RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock is currently neutral between overbought and oversold.

* Next earnings are expected to be released in 19 days.

What The Experts Say On Morgan Stanley:

* Citigroup upgraded its action to Buy with a price target of $115

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.