Investors with a lot of money to spend have taken a bearish stance on Alibaba Gr Hldgs (NYSE:BABA).

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 BABA, 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 34 uncommon options trades for Alibaba Gr Hldgs.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 41% bullish and 44%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 7 are puts, for a total amount of $710,191, and 27 are calls, for a total amount of $1,586,287.

What's The Price Target?

After evaluating the trading volumes and Open Interest, it's evident that the major market movers are focusing on a price band between $40.0 and $135.0 for Alibaba Gr Hldgs, spanning the last three months.

Volume & Open Interest Trends

Examining the volume and open interest provides crucial insights into stock research. This information is key in gauging liquidity and interest levels for Alibaba Gr Hldgs's options at certain strike prices. Below, we present a snapshot of the trends in volume and open interest for calls and puts across Alibaba Gr Hldgs's significant trades, within a strike price range of $40.0 to $135.0, over the past month.

Alibaba Gr Hldgs Call and Put Volume: 30-Day Overview

Biggest Options Spotted:

About Alibaba Gr Hldgs

Alibaba is the world's largest online and mobile commerce company as measured by gross merchandise volume. It operates China's online marketplaces, including Taobao (consumer-to-consumer) and Tmall (business-to-consumer). The China commerce retail division is the most valuable cash flow-generating business at Alibaba. Additional revenue sources include China commerce wholesale, international commerce retail/wholesale, local consumer services, cloud computing, digital media and entertainment platforms, Cainiao logistics services, and innovation initiatives/other.

Following our analysis of the options activities associated with Alibaba Gr Hldgs, we pivot to a closer look at the company's own performance.

Alibaba Gr Hldgs's Current Market Status

• With a trading volume of 12,237,157, the price of BABA is up by 1.66%, reaching $79.82.
• Current RSI values indicate that the stock is may be approaching overbought.
• Next earnings report is scheduled for 27 days from now.

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.