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• Index, ETF option volumes near midday
• Largest option buying in equities so far
• Trader bets Keycorp levels will hold up

• RAX 86% Rate It

Rackspace Hosting is hitting a new all-time high, but one investor is taking the other side of the trade.

optionMONSTER's Depth Charge monitoring program detected the purchase of 5,000 January 2014 50 puts for $7.90 and the sale of 5,000 January 2014 30 puts for $2.05. Volume was more than 45 times open interest at both strikes.

Known as a bearish put spread , the trade will leverage a major correction in the cloud-computing stock. It cost $5.85 and will earn a maximum profit of 242 percent on a drop to $30--less than half the current share price.

RAX is up 1.94 percent to $63.20 in late morning trading and has advanced more than 40 percent in the last three months. The company, which focuses on small and mid-sized businesses, has been growing at a breakneck pace and has trended steadily higher since early 2009.

Today's bearish trade could be the work of a long-term investor who's made money in the name and now wants protection in case its performance weakens. (See our Education section)

Overall option volume in RAX is 6 times greater than average so far today, with puts outnumbering calls by 17 to 1.

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