Bearish trade bites Kraft near highs

Kraft Foods is near an all-time high, and investors are getting nervous.

optionMONSTER's Depth Charge monitoring program detected the purchase of about 30,000 December 37 puts for $0.54 and the sale of an equal number of December 42 calls for $0.84. Volume was more than 19 times open interest at both strikes.

The trader probably owns shares in the consumer-staples giant and is using the options to protect against a drop. He or she collected a credit of $0.30 and stands to make money if the stock pushes toward or below $37. He or she is also obligated to sell their equity for $42 if the shares close above that level on expiration.

KFT, which has never traded above $41.50, is up 0.47 percent to $40.79 this morning. It has appreciated almost 17 percent in the last year as investors have flocked to low-risk companies with less exposure to a weak economy.

Overall option volume is more than 7 times greater than average in KFT so far today, according to the Depth Charge.

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