Investors with a lot of money to spend have taken a bearish stance on MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI).

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 MELI, 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 MercadoLibre.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 36% bullish and 45%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 6 are puts, for a total amount of $206,858, and 5 are calls, for a total amount of $943,042.

Predicted Price Range

Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts, it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from $820.0 to $1900.0 for MercadoLibre over the last 3 months.

Analyzing Volume & Open Interest

Assessing the volume and open interest is a strategic step in options trading. These metrics shed light on the liquidity and investor interest in MercadoLibre's options at specified strike prices. The forthcoming data visualizes the fluctuation in volume and open interest for both calls and puts, linked to MercadoLibre's substantial trades, within a strike price spectrum from $820.0 to $1900.0 over the preceding 30 days.

MercadoLibre Call and Put Volume: 30-Day Overview

Noteworthy Options Activity:

About MercadoLibre

MercadoLibre runs the largest e-commerce marketplace in Latin America, with more than 218 million active users and 1 million active sellers across 18 countries stitching into its commerce network or fintech solutions as of the end of 2023. The company operates a host of complementary businesses to its core online shop, with shipping solutions (Mercado Envios), a payment and financing operation (Mercado Pago and Mercado Credito), advertisements (Mercado Clics), classifieds, and a turnkey e-commerce solution (Mercado Shops) rounding out its arsenal. MercadoLibre generates revenue from final value fees, advertising royalties, payment processing, insertion fees, subscription fees, and interest income from consumer and small-business lending.

After a thorough review of the options trading surrounding MercadoLibre, we move to examine the company in more detail. This includes an assessment of its current market status and performance.

Current Position of MercadoLibre

• With a trading volume of 83,487, the price of MELI is down by -0.45%, reaching $1614.03.
• Current RSI values indicate that the stock is is currently neutral between overbought and oversold.
• Next earnings report is scheduled for 2 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.