CME Group (NASDAQ: CME - option chain) is one of the few stocks rising today after an article in the latest Barron's called CME one of its top picks to weather the current storm, because it can generate a lot of cash in a tight credit environment. Even if CME doesn't rise in the next few months, this kind of sentiment could help the stock at least maintain its current price. If you think that the stock 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 CME.CME opened this morning at $358.00 So far today the stock has hit a low of $353.63 and a high of $384.99. As of 12:35, CME is trading at $371.00, up $8.70 (2.4%). The chart for CME looks neutral and S&P gives CME a 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an October bull-put credit spread below the $280 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 6.5% return in just two weeks as long as CME is above $280 at October expiration. CME would have to fall by more than 24% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.
CME hasn't been below $282 at all in the past year and has shown support around $350 recently.
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 CME.
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