Investors with a lot of money to spend have taken a bullish stance on Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS).
And retail traders should know.
We noticed this today when the trades showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.
Whether these are institutions or just wealthy individuals, 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 these investors just did?
Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 11 uncommon options trades for Morgan Stanley.
This isn't normal.
The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 72% bullish and 27%, bearish.
Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 5 are puts, for a total amount of $360,611, and 6 are calls, for a total amount of $350,788.
Projected Price Targets
Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts, it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from $65.0 to $100.0 for Morgan Stanley over the last 3 months.
Volume & Open Interest Trends
Assessing the volume and open interest is a strategic step in options trading. These metrics shed light on the liquidity and investor interest in Morgan Stanley's options at specified strike prices. The forthcoming data visualizes the fluctuation in volume and open interest for both calls and puts, linked to Morgan Stanley's substantial trades, within a strike price spectrum from $65.0 to $100.0 over the preceding 30 days.
Morgan Stanley Call and Put Volume: 30-Day Overview
Significant Options Trades Detected:
| Symbol | PUT/CALL | Trade Type | Sentiment | Exp. Date | Ask | Bid | Price | Strike Price | Total Trade Price | Open Interest | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MS | PUT | TRADE | BULLISH | 11/15/24 | $3.95 | $3.9 | $3.9 | $90.00 | $175.5K | 1.5K | 0 |
| MS | CALL | SWEEP | BULLISH | 10/18/24 | $5.45 | $5.35 | $5.45 | $95.00 | $101.3K | 3.6K | 0 |
| MS | CALL | TRADE | BEARISH | 10/18/24 | $5.5 | $5.45 | $5.45 | $95.00 | $81.7K | 3.6K | 0 |
| MS | PUT | SWEEP | BULLISH | 09/20/24 | $0.7 | $0.69 | $0.69 | $80.00 | $79.3K | 3.2K | 0 |
| MS | CALL | TRADE | BULLISH | 11/15/24 | $3.85 | $3.75 | $3.84 | $100.00 | $53.7K | 359 | 16 |
About Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley is a global investment bank whose history, through its legacy firms, can be traced back to 1924. The company has institutional securities, wealth management, and investment management segments with approximately 45% of net revenue from its institutional securities business, 45% from wealth management, and 10% from investment management. About 30% of its total revenue is from outside the Americas. The company had over $5 trillion of client assets as well as around 80,000 employees at the end of 2023.
In light of the recent options history for Morgan Stanley, it's now appropriate to focus on the company itself. We aim to explore its current performance.
Where Is Morgan Stanley Standing Right Now?
- With a volume of 893,803, the price of MS is down -0.07% at $95.14.
- RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be oversold.
- Next earnings are expected to be released in 32 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.