Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) shares are falling today, as oil futures are finally relaxing after a week straight of advances as investors finally think that high prices may be cutting into demand. Exxon has been relatively flat all year, topping out at each peak on its chart around $95, including once less than two weeks ago. 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 XOM.

After hitting a one-year low of $77.55 in January, the stock hit a one-year high of $96.12 last week. This morning, XOM opened at $90.04. So far today the stock has hit a low of $89.03 and a high of $90.05. As of 12:40, XOM is trading at $89.99, down $0.71 (-0.8%). The chart for XOM 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 July bear-call credit spread above the $100 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 10.6% return in eight weeks as long as XOM is below $100 at July expiration. Exxon would have to rise by more than 11% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

XOM hasn't been above $96 at all in the past year and has shown resistance around $95 recently. This trade could be risky if the price of oil continues to skyrocket, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by resistance XOM might find around $95, where the stock has topped out 5 times over the past year.

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 XOM.