Benzinga | Jan 31, 2022 10:29AM EST

Looking At Shopify's Recent Whale Trades

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Shopify (NYSE:SHOP).

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 SHOP, 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 28 uncommon options trades for Shopify.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 39% bullish and 60%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 12 are puts, for a total amount of $826,390, and 16 are calls, for a total amount of $870,664.

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 $600.0 to $1270.0 for Shopify over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Shopify options trades today is 294.55 with a total volume of 757.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Shopify's big money trades within a strike price range of $600.0 to $1270.0 over the last 30 days.

Shopify 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 InterestSHOP PUT SWEEP BULLISH 02/04/ $1140.00 $264.0K 65 25 22SHOP PUT SWEEP BEARISH 05/20/ $1205.00 $158.0K 31 5 22SHOP CALL SWEEP BULLISH 02/04/ $900.00 $152.4K 531 148 22SHOP CALL TRADE BEARISH 03/18/ $900.00 $104.7K 278 5 22SHOP CALL SWEEP BEARISH 02/11/ $900.00 $78.0K 47 25 22

Where Is Shopify Standing Right Now?

* With a volume of 255,753, the price of SHOP is up 5.02% at $916.0.

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

* Next earnings are expected to be released in 16 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.