Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) shares are trading higher today after the company announced this morning that the Russian mobile operator MegaFon will offer a mobile e-mail service based on the Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email solution. The hosted service, which will be called MegaSync, will provide mobile e-mail, advanced attachment handling, calendar, contacts and other services to MegaFon's customers. If you think that the company won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on NOK.
After hitting a one-year low of $18.87 in January, the stock hit a one-year high of $42.22 this month. NOK opened this morning at $39.02. So far today, the stock has hit a low of $39.02 and a high of $39.56. As of 11:00, NOK is trading at $39.55, up $1.37 (3.6%). The chart for NOK looks bullish but deteriorating, while S&P gives the stock a negative 2 STARS (out of 5) sell rating.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a December bull-put credit spread below the $35 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 4.2% return in just 4 weeks as long as NOK is above $35 at December expiration. Nokia would have to fall by more than 11% before we would start to lose money.
NOK hasn't been below $35 since September and has shown support around $37.50 recently. This trade could be risky if the stock has formed a top at $40 and comes down some, but even if that happens, this stock could be protected by strong support it found around $35 in October.
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 NOK.
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