Cramer: Don't waver on Nike (NKE)

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) opened at $56.10. So far today the stock has hit a low of $55.89 and a high of $43.95. As of 12:30, NKE is trading at $56.40, up $0.62 (1.1%).

After hitting a one year high of $60.35 in July, the stock has sagged a bit over the past month, but is still holding onto support in the mid-$50's. Jim Cramer has noticed a lot of wacky activity in the market as investors sort through the recent wave of panic. He encourages investors not to waver on the stocks they believe in, as the market makes some wild and at times inexplicable moves. For instance, Nike dipped $6 at one time last week, and Cramer could find no solid reason why – so he's been buying more shares of the stock that he believes is a good one to own. Technical indicators for NKE are neutral and deteriorating, while S&P gives the stock a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a September bull-put credit spread below the $50 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk and leverage returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 13.6% return in less than 6 weeks as long as NKE is above $50 at September expiration. NKE would have to fall by more than 11% before we would start to lose money.

NKE hasn't been below $50 since January and has shown support around $52 recently. This trade could be risky if retail has some trouble in the coming months, but even if that happens, this stock could find support at its 200 day moving average, which is around $52 and rising.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in NKE.