Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Mastercard (NYSE:MA).
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 MA, 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 Mastercard.
This isn't normal.
The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 40% bullish and 60%, bearish.
Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 8 are puts, for a total amount of $297,047, and 2 are calls, for a total amount of $145,875.
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 $335.0 to $380.0 for Mastercard over the last 3 months.
Volume & Open Interest Development
In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Mastercard options trades today is 668.0 with a total volume of 399.00.
In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Mastercard's big money trades within a strike price range of $335.0 to $380.0 over the last 30 days.
Mastercard Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days
Biggest Options Spotted:
| Symbol | PUT/CALL | Trade Type | Sentiment | Exp. Date | Strike Price | Total Trade Price | Open Interest | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MA | CALL | TRADE | BULLISH | 06/17/22 | $380.00 | $117.0K | 2.1K | 154 |
| MA | PUT | SWEEP | BEARISH | 05/20/22 | $335.00 | $57.7K | 498 | 55 |
| MA | PUT | TRADE | BEARISH | 01/20/23 | $350.00 | $57.6K | 589 | 25 |
| MA | PUT | TRADE | BULLISH | 01/20/23 | $340.00 | $42.6K | 852 | 0 |
| MA | PUT | TRADE | BEARISH | 01/20/23 | $350.00 | $32.5K | 589 | 9 |
Where Is Mastercard Standing Right Now?
- With a volume of 797,134, the price of MA is down -0.71% at $346.86.
- RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock is currently neutral between overbought and oversold.
- Next earnings are expected to be released in 34 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.
