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Europe fund faces bearish trade

Bearish trades are hitting the Vanguard FTSE Europe Fund as it pushes lower with escalation of tensions in Ukraine.

More than 9,000 September 57 puts have been purchased this morning, with two big blocks of 3,875 going for $0.55 and $0.60 in consecutive seconds, according to optionMONSTER's Depth Charge tracking system. Open interest in the strike was just 802 contracts before the trades appeared, so they are clearly new positions.

The puts aren't tied to any trading in the underlying shares identified by our systems. They could have been bought in an outright bearish play, looking for continuation of today's selling, or as a hedge to protect long positions. (See our Education section)

The VGK is down 0.81 percent to $57.67 this morning. The exchange-traded fund had been trending higher for the last few weeks after trading below $56 for the first time since the start of February, and they were above $61 at their 52-week highs in mid-June.

The put buying makes up almost all of the volume in the VGK so far today, which is 16 times its full-session average for the last month. Overall puts are outnumbering calls by a bearish 29 to 1.


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