Options: Bearish Bet on First Solar

By Jud Pyle, CFA, chief investment strategist for the Options News Network

Right out of the gate today, an investor's put spread purchase trumped normal daily options volume in First Solar (FSLR Quote) despite a positive outlook from analysts.

More than 30,000 FSLR options traded across all strikes before midday, the bulk of which changed hands when an investor sold 11,300 Aug. 115 puts and bought the Aug. 125 puts 11,300 times. The investor paid $2.20 per spread with the stock at $144.97 a share. Normal daily options volume in FSLR options is approximately 22,000 contracts.

The volume weighted average price (VWAP) of the Aug. 115 puts is $2.7070, and the Aug. 125 puts have a VWAP of $4.8981 (the premium paid is arrived at by subtracting the VWAP of the option the investor sold from the VWAP of the put bought).

The Aug. 115 puts, which are currently trading up 43 cents on the day, are home to current open interest of 492 contracts. The Aug. 125 puts have gained 75 cents so far today and are home to current open interest of 900 contracts.

It's interesting that at least one investor is bucking the recent bullish trend by taking a bearish stance on solar stocks after a Credit Suisse analyst said he sees preconditions for a bubble in the sector. Credit Suisse said FSLR was one of the stocks that is "best leveraged" to take advantage of the potential bubble that could surface as early as next year.