• 
• See all for optionMONSTER
• View Print Version

• Virgin Media is caught in a tug of war
• Bears refuse to let go of Navistar

• FXC 0% Rate It

The bears want to devour Canada's Loonie bird.

optionMONSTER's Depth Charge monitoring program detected the purchase of 5,000 January 99 puts on the CurrencyShares Canadian Dollar Trust exchange-traded fund for $0.85. Volume was more than 30 times previous open interest at the strike.

FXC is lower by 0.58 percent to $100.87 in afternoon trading. The currency, nicknamed after the waterfowl depicted on the coin, normally moves in the same direction as the euro and the Australian dollar. It's down today, however, after Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney sounded a negative tone about the economy. That could entail a weaker growth forecast and spell a longer wait before interest rates increase, both of which are bearish for a currency.

Owning puts locks in the price where investors can sell the FXC, so those January 99s will inflate in value if the fund pushes lower. (See our Education section for more on how options can be used in place own buying and selling shares.)

FXC normally only trades about 285 contracts in a session, but today's volume is almost 20 times that average. Puts account for a bearish 95 percent of the total.

Related Options Articles

• 
  Global selloff hits equity indexes
  5/23/2013 08:14 AM
• 
  Huge bullish trades in sector funds
  5/23/2013 05:25 AM
• 
  Cree lights up with large call spread
  5/23/2013 05:24 AM