Traders Bet Western Digital Shares Will Fall

OptionMonster co-founder Pete Najarian provides options picks Monday, Wednesday and Friday in TheStreet.com's Deep in the Money Calls newsletter.

David Russell, reporter for OptionMonster.

Options traders apparently think that Western Digital(WDC Quote) is headed lower.

OptionMonster's tracking systems detected heavy activity in the July 22.50 puts, which changed hands for 60 cents to 90 cents this morning. Volume surged to 20,882 contracts, more than three times open interest, with most of the trading in a strong buying pattern.

The trades did not include obviously large institutional-size blocks, however, so they may be the work of investors acting on a newsletter recommendation.

Western Digital is down 2.3% to $24.31 in afternoon trading. The hard-drive maker, up 48% in the last three months, needs to fall at least 10% from current levels for the puts bought today to generate a profit.

Puts in Western Digital outnumbered calls by more than 14 to 1, reflecting the bearish sentiment.