Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) shares are rising this morning after the company's unveiling of a "green" phone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The phone is made entirely of recyclable materials like cans and tires. Additionally, NOK unveiled four new multimedia phones on Monday and announced that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s popular search engine will be integrated with the Nokia Search application on internet-enabled phones. 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 $20.77 in March, the stock hit a one-year high of $42.22 in November. NOK opened this morning at $36.87. So far today the stock has hit a low of $36.65 and a high of $37.19. As of 10:50, NOK is trading at $37.12, up $0.99 (2.8%). The chart for NOK looks bearish but improving slightly, 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 March bull-put credit spread below the $32 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. This particular trade will make an 11.1% return in just 5 weeks as long as NOK is above $32 at March expiration. Nokia would have to fall by more than 14% before we would start to lose money.
NOK hasn't been below $32 by more than a few cents since September and has shown support around $34 recently. This trade could be risky if the US economy continues to worsen, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the support the stock might find at its 200-day moving average, which is around $33 and rising.
Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in NOK.
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