Looking At Morgan Stanley's Recent Whale Trades

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bullish stance on Morgan Stanley MS.

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 MS, 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 18 uncommon options trades for Morgan Stanley.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 50% bullish and 50%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 4 are puts, for a total amount of $305,418, and 14 are calls, for a total amount of $739,450.

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 $70.0 to $150.0 for Morgan Stanley over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Morgan Stanley options trades today is 3340.5 with a total volume of 4,543.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Morgan Stanley's big money trades within a strike price range of $70.0 to $150.0 over the last 30 days.

Morgan Stanley Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days

Biggest Options Spotted:

Where Is Morgan Stanley Standing Right Now?

• With a volume of 3,759,833, the price of MS is down -2.0% at $103.8.
• RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching overbought.
• Next earnings are expected to be released in 7 days.

What The Experts Say On Morgan Stanley:

• UBS has decided to maintain their Buy rating on Morgan Stanley, which currently sits at a price target of $125.
• Barclays has decided to maintain their Overweight rating on Morgan Stanley, which currently sits at a price target of $123.

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.