Express Scripts (ESRX - option chain) shares are rising today just ahead of the completion of the company's scheduled 2:1 stock split. Tomorrow morning, investors will find twice as much ESRX stock in their accounts and the price should be about halved. A split is often viewed as a bullish indicator, since the stock seems cheaper after the split, even though all things are essentially equal. 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 ESRX.

ESRX opened this morning at $100.02. So far today the stock has hit a low of $99.96 and a high of $104.16. As of 12:20, ESRX is trading at $103.90 up $4.74 (4.8%). The chart for ESRX looks bullish and S&P gives ESRX a positive 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy ranking.

If you can't get the stock price to go up, you can always try playing the Jedi mind trick game of stock splits, reverse splits and stock dividends.

In a filing with the SEC, General Motors (NYSE: GM) disclosed its plan to effect a 1-for-100 reverse split of its common stock. The plan is part of an agreement with the Treasury Department that would give the United States government a majority stake in GM in exchange for taking on the company's debt obligations.

Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) opened at $78.49. So far today the stock has hit a low of $77.40 and a high of $79.96. As of 11:00, RIMM is trading at $79.36, up $5.93 (8.1%).

The stock has been strong over the past several months, hitting a new high today after a 3 for 1 split this morning. The stock jumped yesterday after Goldman Sachs lifted its price target, and continues to climb today as analysts at TheStreet.com are calling RIMM a good gadget play, saying that it is unlikely to be affected by credit problems that have been hurting the market recently. As Paul Foster noted earlier, with the stock split this morning, option volatility is up, which is usually a great time to sell options. Technical indicators for RIMM are bullish but deteriorating, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a December bull-put credit spread below the $50 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 7.4% return in just 4 months as long as RIMM is above $50 at December expiration. RIMM would have to fall by more than 37% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

RIMM hasn't been below $50 (split-adjusted) since April and has shown support around $70 recently. This trade could be risky if RIMM's earnings (due out in late September or early October) disappoint, but even if that happens, this stock could be protected by support just under $55 that it formed back in June.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.