Floor seen in Century Aluminum

Century Aluminum reports earnings tomorrow afternoon, and one trader apparently believes that declines will be limited through next spring.

optionMONSTER's tracking systems yesterday detected the sale of 2,000 March 22 puts for $1.45, below the bid price at the time. This is clearly a new position, as open interest in the strike was just 918 contracts before the trade appeared.

The put seller collects the $1.45 credit and is looking for CENX to stay above $22 through expiration in mid-March. If the stock falls below that strike price, the trader will be on the hook to buy shares at that level.

CENX fell 4.27 percent to $26.90 yesterday but is up 200 percent in the last year. The aluminum producer pulled back after hitting a six-year high of $29.54 on Sept. 5 but found support at the $22 level earlier this month and has been rebounding since. The company is scheduled to release quarterly results tomorrow after the market closes.

Yesterday's total option volume in the name was 3.5 times its daily average for the last month. Overall puts outnumbered calls by nearly 4 to 1.

Copyright and Exemption Declaration :¢ÙAll articles, pictures and videos that are marked with "China Aluminum Network" on this website are copyright and belong to China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn). When transshipment, any media, website or individual must list the source from "China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn)". We seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÚArticles that marked as copy from others are for transferring more information to readers, do not represent or endorse their opinions or accuracy and reliability. When other media, website or individuals copy from our website, must keep the source. Anyone that changes the articles' sources will hold the responsibilities for copyright and law problems. We also seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÛIf any articles copied by our website concern the copyright and other problems, please contact us within one week.