Benzinga | Jan 10, 2022 11:12AM EST

MercadoLibre Whale Trades For January 10

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI).

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 MELI, 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 53 uncommon options trades for MercadoLibre.

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, 42 are puts, for a total amount of $7,191,206, and 11 are calls, for a total amount of $612,810.

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 $260.0 to $2700.0 for MercadoLibre over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for MercadoLibre options trades today is 153.07 with a total volume of 2,664.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for MercadoLibre's big money trades within a strike price range of $260.0 to $2700.0 over the last 30 days.

MercadoLibre 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 InterestMELI PUT TRADE BEARISH 04/14/ $1560.00 $1.1M 0 20 22MELI PUT TRADE BEARISH 03/18/ $1460.00 $1.0M 85 24 22MELI PUT TRADE BEARISH 06/17/ $1100.00 $1.0M 444 197 22MELI PUT SWEEP BEARISH 01/14/ $1050.00 $470.0K 316 272 22MELI PUT TRADE BEARISH 01/14/ $1050.00 $445.5K 316 119 22

Where Is MercadoLibre Standing Right Now?

* With a volume of 352,869, the price of MELI is down -6.71% at $1012.55.

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

* Next earnings are expected to be released in 49 days.

What The Experts Say On MercadoLibre:

* Jefferies downgraded its action to Hold with a price target of $1250

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.