Benzinga | Dec 22, 2021 11:41AM EST

Looking At Upstart Holdings's Recent Whale Trades

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Upstart Holdings (NASDAQ:UPST).

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 UPST, 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 10 uncommon options trades for Upstart Holdings.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 30% bullish and 70%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 2 are puts, for a total amount of $117,340, and 8 are calls, for a total amount of $310,375.

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 $100.0 to $220.0 for Upstart Holdings over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Upstart Holdings options trades today is 665.33 with a total volume of 1,997.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Upstart Holdings's big money trades within a strike price range of $100.0 to $220.0 over the last 30 days.

Upstart Holdings 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 InterestUPST CALL TRADE BEARISH 12/31/ $150.00 $76.6K 786 180 21UPST PUT TRADE NEUTRAL 01/21/ $220.00 $75.6K 1.0K 16 22UPST CALL SWEEP BULLISH 01/21/ $150.00 $41.8K 935 336 22UPST PUT SWEEP BULLISH 02/18/ $180.00 $41.6K 142 10 22UPST CALL TRADE BEARISH 12/31/ $160.00 $40.0K 1.0K 188 21

Where Is Upstart Holdings Standing Right Now?

* With a volume of 2,011,599, the price of UPST is down -0.95% at $148.06.

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

* Next earnings are expected to be released in 84 days.

What The Experts Say On Upstart Holdings:

* Wedbush downgraded its action to Neutral with a price target of $160

* Morgan Stanley downgraded its action to Equal-Weight with a price target of $200

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.