However, option traders might beg to differ. During the past 10 days, traders on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) have bought to open more than two times more calls than puts on POT. The stock's 10-day call/put ratio of 2.29 ranks higher than 91% of other such readings taken in the past year, which suggests that investors on the ISE have rarely felt more bullish toward the stock.

In the November options series, there are two major accumulations of call open interest. The first is at the 110 strike, with 11,770 contracts in residence, while another significant build-up of 10,549 contracts can be found as far north as the 160 strike. With POT trading south of the $90 level, this configuration indicates that some option players are looking for a serious rebound in the shares during the next several weeks.

Meanwhile, the stock is floundering below former support from its 10-month and 20-month moving averages. These trendlines acted as support from August 2003 through the end of September 2008; now that POT is trading well below this duo, it may indicate that the stock's long-term uptrend has officially met its demise.

The equity's technical woes, combined with its vulnerability to further negative notes from analysts, indicates that there may be more losses in store for Potash Corp. during the short term. The heavy levels of optimism among option traders is also troubling, since an unwinding of this bullish sentiment could exacerbate the selling pressure POT's already feeling.

Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.