Benzinga | Dec 13, 2021 01:13PM EST

What Are Whales Doing With Citigroup

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

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 C, 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 46 uncommon options trades for Citigroup.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 32.61% bullish and 67.39%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 25 are puts, for a total amount of $3,440,009.00, and 21 are calls, for a total amount of $1,190,761.00.

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 $45.0 to $82.5 for Citigroup over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Citigroup options trades today is 14144.03 with a total volume of 20,898.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Citigroup's big money trades within a strike price range of $45.0 to $82.5 over the last 30 days.

Citigroup 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 InterestC PUT TRADE NEUTRAL 01/19/ $52.50 $513.7K 1.5K 765 24C PUT TRADE BULLISH 01/19/ $50.00 $402.5K 10.1K 700 24C PUT TRADE BULLISH 03/18/ $60.00 $365.0K 23.7K 1.2K 22C PUT TRADE BEARISH 01/19/ $52.50 $342.5K 1.5K 1.2K 24C PUT SWEEP NEUTRAL 01/21/ $70.00 $330.0K 59.1K 551 22

Where Is Citigroup Standing Right Now?

* With a volume of 8,678,994.00, the price of C is down -0.84% at $60.2.

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

* Next earnings are expected to be released in 32 days.

What The Experts Say On Citigroup:

* Credit Suisse has decided to maintain their Outperform rating on Citigroup, which currently sits at a price target of $76.0.

* Morgan Stanley downgraded its action to Equal-Weight with a price target of $82.0

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.