Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LEH) opened at $61.64. So far today the stock has hit a low of $60.20 and a high of $63.80. As of 11:00, LEH is trading at $61.84, down $$2.94 (-4.5%).

After hitting a one year high of $86.18 in February, the stock has been beaten down by credit woes over the past several months, hitting a year-low of $52.63 on Monday before bouncing nicely over the next few days. LEH is taking a hit today following Archstone-Smith's (NYSE: ASN) earnings report last night. Lehman has agreed to purchase the company, which reported earnings well short of analyst expectations for the second quarter. Jim Cramer has strongly advised against investing in financials, including LEH, until earnings estimates get seriously reduced to more realistic levels. After Wachovia cut broker estimates yesterday, Cramer notes that LEH's price to earnings ratio of 7.5 seems cheap enough to consider buying the stock in the next dip. LEH's action today may be a good buying opportunity for investors looking to get into financials at what Cramer calls an investable bottom. Technical indicators for LEH are bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a negative 2 STARS (out of 5) sell rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a September bull-put credit spread below the $45 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk and leverage returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 6.4% return in 6 weeks as long as LEH is above $45 at September expiration. LEH would have to fall by more than 27% before we would start to lose money.

LEH hasn't been below $52 at all in the past year, even at the bottom of its recent drop, and has shown support around $60 recently. This trade could be risky if the financials start to drop again, but this trade is well below the previous bottom for LEH.

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 LEH or ASN.