Benzinga | Jan 10, 2022 03:07PM EST

Looking At Alphabet's Recent Whale Trades

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

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 GOOGL, 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 337 uncommon options trades for Alphabet.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 34% bullish and 65%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 137 are puts, for a total amount of $18,871,229, and 200 are calls, for a total amount of $18,932,778.

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 $1040.0 to $4500.0 for Alphabet over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Alphabet options trades today is 377.86 with a total volume of 51,733.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Alphabet's big money trades within a strike price range of $1040.0 to $4500.0 over the last 30 days.

Alphabet 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 InterestGOOGL PUT TRADE BEARISH 09/16/ $2400.00 $464.0K 213 48 22GOOGL CALL TRADE BULLISH 01/19/ $3100.00 $220.5K 20 10 24GOOGL CALL TRADE BEARISH 01/21/ $2550.00 $218.3K 220 47 22GOOGL PUT TRADE NEUTRAL 01/20/ $2500.00 $186.5K 202 12 23GOOGL CALL SWEEP BEARISH 03/18/ $2700.00 $167.5K 254 51 22

Where Is Alphabet Standing Right Now?

* With a volume of 1,523,743, the price of GOOGL is up 0.98% at $2767.08.

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

* Next earnings are expected to be released in 22 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.