Option Trade of the Day: Occidental Petroleum (OXY)

One of the most interesting “smart money” trades we came across yesterday was with Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: OXY).

If you’re new here, a “smart money” trade is a relatively large volume option trade most likely made by a pro trader. The idea is to analyze unusual options activity, identify an interesting “smart money” trade, and then make our best guess as to:

  1. Which direction the trader thinks the stock is headed
  2. How much they think it will rise (or fall), and
  3. In what time frame this will all happen.

If we like what we see after putting all these pieces together, we can mimic the “smart money” trade (on a smaller scale), and potentially ride alongside our pro trader to profits. With all this in mind…

A Pro Trader Just Bet $904,595 that OXY Will Continue to Climb in the Next 10 Months

On Friday, March 11, 2022, a pro trader seems to have bought 797 of the January 20, 2023, $60 call options on OXY for $11.35 per contract. Her outlay was $904,595. 

Interestingly, there seem to be multiple option trades done for OXY yesterday, for the same strike price and expiration date, with the total amount translating to nearly 2 million dollars.

OXY – Option Trades

The trade’s breakeven point is at $71.35, meaning that OXY needs to rise to $71.35 for the call option trade to break even. This is a nearly 23% upside from the stock’s previous close of $57.95. And then for every $1 the stock rises above $71.35, our “smart money” trader will make $79,700!

On analyzing the daily chart of OXY, the stock seems to have broken out of an upward sloping trend channel (marked as blue color lines). This breakout level would now act as a strong support area. The stock is also trading above a support area, which is marked as a pink color dotted line. All this makes it likely that our pro trader is bullish on OXY.

OXY – Daily Chart

This lends credence to our conclusion that the pro bought these call options, as opposed to selling them.

If you agree and would like to mimic this trade, here’s how:

Buy to open the January 20, 2023, $60 call options on OXY for $11.35 or better.

As always, depending on your risk appetite, do remember to set a stop-loss for the options trade to avoid significant losses.

Happy Trading!

— Trades of The Day Research Team

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