Barclay's (NYSE: BCS) stock is falling today after the company announced a 1.1B GBP loss for Q1, including a 1.7B GBP charge, mostly related to write-downs of credit market losses. The company also did not announce rights issue to raise capital, which has surprised analysts. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on BCS.

After hitting a one-year high of $61.55 in July, the stock hit a one-year low of $31.31 in March. This morning, BCS opened at $32.44. So far today the stock has hit a low of $32.35 and a high of $33.17. As of 12:25, BCS is trading at $32.97, down 0.34 (-1.0%). The chart for BCS looks bullish but deteriorating, while S&P gives the stock a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a September bear-call credit spread above the $40 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call 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 7.5% return in four months as long as BCS is below $40 at September expiration. Barclays would have to rise by more than 21% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

BCS hasn't been above $40 by more than a little bit since January and has shown resistance around $37 recently. This trade could be risky if the financial markets execute a turnaround, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by resistance BCS might find at $40, where the stock has topped out twice int he past two months.

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 BCS.