Manpower (NYSE: MAN - option chain) stock is falling today after the company withdrew its fourth-quarter profit and revenue forecasts, saying its quarter-to-date drop-off is much larger than expected. 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 MAN.

This morning, MAN opened at $33.95. So far today the stock has hit a low of $31.13 and a high of $34.50. As of 12:25, MAN is trading at $30.92, down $5.48 (-15.0%). The chart for MAN looks bearish and S&P gives MAN a negative 2 STARS (out of 5) sell ranking.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a March bear-call credit spread above the $45 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 4.2% return in four months as long as MAN is below $45 at March expiration. Manpower would have to rise by more than 45% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

MAN hasn't been above $45 since late September and shown resistance around $38 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 MAN.