Looking At Alphabet's Recent Unusual Options Activity

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Alphabet 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 89 uncommon options trades for Alphabet.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 44% bullish and 55%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 43 are puts, for a total amount of $2,021,404, and 46 are calls, for a total amount of $3,419,018.

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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 $40.0 to $210.0 for Alphabet over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

Looking at the volume and open interest is a powerful move while trading options. This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Alphabet's options for a given strike price. Below, we can observe the evolution of the volume and open interest of calls and puts, respectively, for all of Alphabet's whale trades within a strike price range from $40.0 to $210.0 in the last 30 days.

Alphabet Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days

Biggest Options Spotted:

Where Is Alphabet Standing Right Now?

• With a volume of 20,972,718, the price of GOOGL is down -0.37% at $135.66.
• RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be approaching overbought.
• Next earnings are expected to be released in 53 days.

What The Experts Say On Alphabet:

• Wedbush downgraded its action to Outperform with a price target of $160
• B of A Securities has decided to maintain their Buy rating on Alphabet, which currently sits at a price target of $146.
• Susquehanna downgraded its action to Positive with a price target of $150
• JMP Securities downgraded its action to Market Outperform with a price target of $138
• Needham downgraded its action to Buy with a price target of $140

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 want to stay updated on the latest options trades for Alphabet, Benzinga Pro gives you real-time options trades alerts.