Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) shares are trading higher after the company announced it has entered with Goodrich Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: GDP) into a joint venture to drill for oil and natural gas in northwest Louisiana. Oil and natural gas futures are both rising this morning, giving CHK an extra boost. 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 CHK.

After hitting a one-year low of $31.38 in August, the stock hit a one-year high of $61.44 last week. CHK opened this morning at $60.48. So far today the stock has hit a low of $59.78 and a high of $61.45. As of 11:50, CHK is trading at $60.96, up $1.70 (2.9%). The chart for CHK looks bullish and deteriorating slightly, while S&P gives the stock a bullish 4 Stars (out of 5) Buy rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a July 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 in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. This particular trade will make a 4.2% return in just one month as long as CHK is above $50 at July expiration. Chesapeake would have to fall by more than 18% before we would start to lose money.

CHK hasn't been below $50 since April and has shown support around $52.50 recently. This trade could be risky if the prices for oil and other energies fall off some in the next few weeks, but even if that happens, that position could be protected by support the stock might find above $50, where it bottomed out in the past two months.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in CHK.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: UCBH Holdings, National Atlantic Holdings and J Sainsbury were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Friedman Billings downgraded UCBH Holdings (NASDAQ: UCBH) to Market Perform from Outperform. The firm said the departure of auditor PWC could not have come at a worse time following the recent CFO replacement and the credit-quality-related adverse change to Q4 earnings in the 10-K.
  
• Citigroup cut National Atlantic Holdings (NASDAQ: NAHC) to Hold from Buy after the company announced plans to merger with a subsidiary of Palisades Safety and Insurance.
  
• Goldman removed J Sainsbury (OTC: JSAIY) from the Conviction Buy List on fears that stagflation could impact earnings.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Suntrust cut Goodrich Petroleum (NYSE: GDP) to Neutral from Buy.
  
• Cubist Pharma (NASDAQ: CBST) was downgraded to Market Weight from Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
  
• ING lowered Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (NYSE: BBV) to Hold from Buy.