Investors with a lot of money to spend have taken a bearish stance on Vistra (NYSE:VST).

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 VST, 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 Vistra.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 0% bullish and 72%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 4 are puts, for a total amount of $382,710, and 7 are calls, for a total amount of $934,000.

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 $60.0 to $100.0 for Vistra over the last 3 months.

Analyzing Volume & Open Interest

Looking at the volume and open interest is an insightful way to conduct due diligence on a stock.

This data can help you track the liquidity and interest for Vistra'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 Vistra's whale activity within a strike price range from $60.0 to $100.0 in the last 30 days.

Vistra 30-Day Option Volume & Interest Snapshot

Significant Options Trades Detected:

About Vistra

Vistra Energy is one of the largest power producers and retail energy providers in the US Following the 2024 Energy Harbor acquisition, Vistra owns 41 gigawatts of nuclear, coal, natural gas, and solar power generation along with one of the largest utility-scale battery projects in the world. Its retail electricity business serves 5 million customers in 20 states, including almost a third of all Texas electricity consumers. Vistra emerged from the Energy Future Holdings bankruptcy as a stand-alone entity in 2016. It acquired Dynegy in 2018.

Current Position of Vistra

• With a trading volume of 5,240,371, the price of VST is down by -2.14%, reaching $72.8.
• Current RSI values indicate that the stock is may be approaching oversold.
• Next earnings report is scheduled for 1 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.