Evergreen Solar (NYSE: ESLR) shares are trading higher today after the company announced today it has signed a sales contract with Germany's IBC Solar AG valued at $1.2 billion. Under the deal, the company will make the solar panels at a recently opened plant in Devens and at another factory expected to open in 2010. 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 ESLR.After hitting a one-year high of $18.85 in December, the stock hit a one-year low of $7.52 in March. ESLR opened this morning at $10.16. So far today the stock has hit a low of $9.58 and a high of $10.22. As of 12:40, ESLR is trading at $10.11, up $0.95 (10.4%). The chart for ESLR looks bullish but deteriorating while S&P gives ESLR a very positive 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy rating.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a September bull-put credit spread below the $7.50 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 19.0% return in just two months as long as ESLR is above $7.50 at September expiration. Evergreen would have to fall by more than 25.7% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.



