Natural gas giant Chesapeake Energy (CHK) has been in the headlines lately, with the stock attracting attention due to a substantial asset sale earlier this week. Plus, just Friday morning, CHK scored an upgrade to buy at Canaccord Genuity. The shares have gained ground as a result, with the equity up more than 13% from last Friday's close. However, bearish bets were the options of choice on CHK this morning.

Within the first hour of Friday's session, more than 5,000 puts were exchanged on CHK's January 2012 35-strike put. The majority of these puts traded near the ask price, indicating they were most likely purchased. With CHK hovering just shy of $35 at last look, these long-term options are right at the money.

Shares of Patriot Coal (PCX) surged to a new annual high of $27.54 right out of the gate Tuesday, as traders cheered the energy issue's latest quarterly report.

Patriot announced that its fourth-quarter net profit dwindled 33% to $7.3 million, or 8 cents per share, from its year-ago results of $10.9 million, or 12 cents per share. Revenue for the quarter climbed 5% to $528.2 million, but selling and administrative expenses swelled 35% to $14 million. Likewise, Patriot's operating cost per ton increased 9.5% to $55.70.

Call options were in heavy rotation Monday on The Gap (GPS). Within the first hour of trading, 3,350 of these bullishly oriented options crossed the tape -- about four times the expected number of call contracts. The bulk of this activity took place at The Gap's January 2011 22.50 call, where 3,031 contracts were traded. Approximately 77% of these calls changed hands at the ask price, indicating they were purchased.

However, this skew toward calls simply continues a recent trend for GPS. During the past 10 days, speculators on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) have bought to open 5.99 calls for every put on the retailer. This ratio ranks above 75% of other such readings taken during the previous year, indicating that traders on the ISE have purchased calls over puts at a faster pace just 25% of the time.

Tax specialist H&R Block (HRB) is slated to take the earnings stage tonight, with Wall Street anticipating a fiscal second-quarter loss of 38 cents per share -- right in line with the firm's year-ago deficit. HRB has been a solid performer on the earnings front, as the company has surpassed analysts' bottom-line expectations in each of the past four quarters.

Judging by today's option activity, traders are anticipating another upside surprise from HRB. Within the first two hours of the session, no fewer than 13,000 calls crossed the tape -- absolutely dwarfing HRB's average daily call volume of just 4,012 contracts.

Bank of America (BAC) has grabbed some headlines lately, for better or worse. Earlier this week, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed he would release documents next year pointing to an "ecosystem of corruption" at a major U.S. bank, and many journalists connected a trail of dots leading back to Bank of America. As a result, the stock slipped 3% on Tuesday.

However, Bank of America bounced back with the rest of the market on Wednesday, after one executive at the Charlotte-based bank downplayed the growing speculation. During the course of the session, call volume on BAC rose to two times the usual level, with about 593,000 contracts crossing the tape.

Analysts at JPMorgan Securities are recommending that investors initiate long put spreads on Intel Corp. (INTC), according to Doris Frankel of Reuters. The brokerage firm suggests the bearish options trade for shareholders who are looking to hedge their bets on INTC, due to concerns about contracting gross margins.

Specifically, with INTC trading just shy of $20, JPMorgan recommends buying the January 2011 19-strike put and selling the January 16 put. Currently, the January 19 put is asked at $0.63, while the January 16 put is bid at $0.13. At these prices, the long put spread could be initiated for a net debit of $0.50 per pair of contracts.

Option volume has ramped up on Regions Financial (RF) today, with 14,000 contracts changing hands by midday -- more than double the equity's average daily volume. Calls are dominating most of the action, as no fewer than 12,000 of these bullishly oriented options have been exchanged.

Traders appear to be adding new positions at RF's out-of-the-money November 8 and December 8 call strikes, continuing a recent trend in the options pits. During the past 10 days, the International Securities Exchange (ISE) reports that options players have bought to open 9.12 calls for every put on RF. This ratio arrives in the 94th percentile of its annual range, not far from an optimistic peak.

Put volume skyrocketed Tuesday on Newmont Mining (NEM), with roughly 22,000 contracts crossing the tape within the first 90 minutes of the session. By contrast, NEM was only expected to see about 1,800 puts change hands -- so this surge represents about 12 times the norm.

The equity's November 60 put is far and away the most active. By 11 a.m., this out-of-the-money strike had already seen in excess of 13,200 contracts exchanged, with 59% of these puts trading at the ask price. Implied volatility on this back-month option has climbed by 2.6 percentage points to 35.2%, so it seems likely that buyers are driving the bulk of today's volume.

Calls were the options of choice on Alcoa (AA) Thursday, according to data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE). During the course of the session, speculators on the ISE bought to open 1,255 calls on AA, compared to just 56 puts. The equity's single-day ISE call/put volume ratio of 22.41 underscores a distinct preference toward bullish bets over bearish.

Thursday's most popular strike was AA's October 12 call, where 1,669 contracts crossed the tape -- about 93% at the ask price, confirming they were most likely purchased. Open interest at this strike climbed overnight by 1,391 contracts, and now stands at 57,578 open positions.

Analysts at JPMorgan are recommending call options for anxious investors in First Solar (FSLR), according to a note to clients released this morning. Specifically, the brokerage firm said that shareholders who've grown skeptical with lower earnings from First Solar might want to consider replacing their shares with call options.

With FSLR currently trading near $125, the firm is recommending that clients swap out their stock for December 125 calls. These intermediate-term options will cost you about $14.30, at last check, which means that FSLR must rise above $139.30 prior to December expiration before you'll begin seeing profits.

Calls are unusually popular on United States Steel Corporation (X), with volume rising to more than double the norm by midday. Roughly 20,000 calls changed hands on X during the first half of the session, outpacing the stock's predicted call volume of about 7,700 contracts.

Less than an hour into today's session, Panera Bread Company (PNRA) was already racking up heavy put volume. Roughly 5,233 contracts changed hands within the first half-hour of trading, easily outpacing the stock's predicted put activity. Most of the volume was evenly split between two near-term strikes, with one speculator looking for PNRA to remain above $75 during the next month.

Specifically, the security's August 70 put and August 75 put each traded more than 2,500 contracts this morning, with volume well outpacing open interest at both strikes -- suggesting that new positions are being opened. It appears that the trader is selling the August 75 puts and buying the August 70 puts, which means we're looking at a short put spread, or credit spread.

Put volume surged on CBOE Holdings (CBOE) Tuesday, with nearly 7,200 of these bearishly oriented options crossing the tape. This flurry of activity represented about seven times the stock's expected daily put volume. Meanwhile, fewer than 1,700 calls were exchanged during the course of Tuesday's trading.

The day's most popular strike, by far, was CBOE's July 30 put. No fewer than 6,443 contracts traded at this strike, with 83% changing hands at the ask price -- indicating they were most likely purchased. Implied volatility rose 7.2 percentage points by the close, and open interest at this strike swelled overnight by 3,175 contracts. In other words, it's a safe bet that new bearish positions were added at the July 30 put on Tuesday.

Puts are flying across the tape today on Arena Pharmaceuticals (ARNA), with volume surging to 43 times the expected level within the first hour of the session. Roughly 11,000 puts changed hands by 10:40 a.m., and most of the activity was focused on ARNA's front-month strikes.

The equity's July 3 put was most active, with more than 9,000 contracts trading. Several large blocks changed hands at the ask price, implying they were most likely purchased, and implied volatility rose 18.6 percentage points as a result of the increased activity. With more than 45,000 contracts in residence at the July 3 put, it's unclear how much of this volume will translate to new open interest tomorrow; however, buyers seem to be responsible for the bulk of the activity.

Shares of oil-spill accessory Transocean Ltd. (RIG) are currently trading near $47, but one investor is bracing for a drastic downside move from the security. On Wednesday, a long-term options trader picked up some plunge protection on RIG by purchasing a large number of deep out-of-the-money puts.

Specifically, several large blocks totaling roughly 5,000 contracts traded near the ask price yesterday on RIG's January 2011 25-strike put. Implied volatility on the option rose 2% by the close, indicating rising demand for this LEAPS strike. Open interest climbed overnight by 4,710 contracts, confirming that these were newly opened bearish bets.