The trader maybe should have waited for this morning's "Why Oil Prices Aren’t Going Down".
From the Options Insider:
Put Spreader Portends Near-Term Erosion In Energy Fund’s Shares
A massive put spread purchased on the XLE, an exchange-traded fund designed to correspond to the performance of the Energy Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index, points perhaps to one investor’s expectation that the price of the fund’s shares are set to decline ahead of September expiration day. Shares of the fund are currently up 0.40% at $54.06 as of 3:45 pm ET.
It looks like the pessimistic player picked up approximately 40,000 puts at the September $53 strike for an average premium of $0.21 each, and sold about the same number of puts at the lower September $52 strike at an average premium of $0.44 a-pop. Net premium paid to purchase the spread amounts to $0.23 per contract.
The investor responsible for the transaction stands ready to make money if shares of the XLE fall 2.4% from the current price of $54.06 to breach the effective breakeven point at $52.77 by expiration next Friday. Maximum potential profits of $0.77 per contract – for a total of $3,080 million – are available to the trader if the XLE’s shares drop 3.8% to slip beneath $52.00 by expiration day.
