Options Trading News

Walgreen is sitting neat a 52-week low, but the bulls are looking for a rebound.

optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker monitoring system detected the purchase of 10,000 August 33 calls for $0.17 and the sale of an equal number of August 34 calls for $0.07. Volume was more than 10 times open interest at both strikes.

The trade cost a net $0.10 and will earn a maximum profit of 900 percent if the pharmacy giant closes at or above $34 on expiration. The strategy is known as a bullish call spread because it leverages a move between two prices.

WAG rose 0.27 percent to $29.29 in morning trading but has lost 13 percent of its value in the last three months. Much of that decline occurred on Tuesday, when the company announced that it was making a big bet on Europe by acquiring 45 percent of Alliance Boots. Investors, worried about financial crisis in the region, responded by hammering the U.S. company.

But WAG now appears to be holding its ground near $30, which was a key level in July 2010. Today's bullish spread appears to be a cheap, low-risk wager that it will bounce back. (See our Education section for more on how options can be used to manage risk.)

Almost 26,000 contracts have traded so far in the session, roughly twice the daily average. Calls outnumber puts by 16 to 1, according to the Heat Seeker.