“A trader has sold one block of 17,852 March 46 puts in the iShares UltraShort 20+ Treasury (TBT) exchange-traded fund for $0.86. The TBT opened higher and is up 0.13 percent on the day to $47.18, sitting at a support level that has held since early December. Shares were up around $51 coming into the new year and have been hovering around this support are for the last couple of weeks,” Chris McKhann Reports From Option Monster.

McKhann continues to say, “The volume in those March 46 puts is well above the open interest of 2,814 contracts at that strike, indicating that this is a new opening position. The trader is making a bet that the Treasury ETF will hold above that $46 level through expiration and is willing to buy it at $46 if assigned.”

“Because this is an UltraShort fund–meaning that it looks to provide twice the inverse daily returns of the Treasuries–it is effectively looking for a top in the Treasury market and, possibly through correlation, a bottom to the equity slide. Given the wide variety of financial products available today, this could also be traded against something in another market, including other options, futures, or futures options,” McKhann Reports.

See The Story: HERE

Here are some details on the iShares UltraShort 20+ Treasury ETF (TBT) and a list of the March PUT options:

The investment (TBT) seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, which correspond to twice the inverse of the daily performance of the Barclays Capital 20+ Year U.S. Treasury index. The fund normally invests at least 80% of assets to investments that, in combination, have economic characteristics that are inverse to those of the index. It also typically invests in taking positions in financial instruments, including derivatives that should have similar daily return characteristics as twice the inverse of the index. The fund is nondiversified.

Strike Symbol Last Chg Bid Ask Vol Open Int 26.00 TBT100320P00026000 0.04 0.00 N/A 0.02 0 55 30.00 TBT100320P00030000 0.03 0.00 N/A 0.04 0 529 31.00 TBT100320P00031000 0.02 0.00 N/A 0.04 0 147 32.00 TBT100320P00032000 0.03 0.00 N/A 0.05 0 177 33.00 TBT100320P00033000 0.03 0.00 N/A 0.05 0 316 34.00 TBT100320P00034000 0.05 0.00 N/A 0.06 0 324 35.00 TBT100320P00035000 0.04 0.00 N/A 0.06 0 5,573 36.00 TBT100320P00036000 0.05 0.00 0.04 0.08 0 267 37.00 TBT100320P00037000 0.05 0.01 0.04 0.07 5 2,946 38.00 TBT100320P00038000 0.08 0.00 0.06 0.09 0 5,794 39.00 TBT100320P00039000 0.09 0.01 0.08 0.10 10 848 40.00 TBT100320P00040000 0.13 0.03 0.10 0.13 216 5,472 41.00 TBT100320P00041000 0.16 0.08 0.14 0.17 73 1,239 42.00 TBT100320P00042000 0.24 0.03 0.20 0.23 30 2,740 43.00 TBT100320P00043000 0.36 0.07 0.28 0.32 21 1,576 44.00 TBT100320P00044000 0.46 0.01 0.43 0.46 142 4,919 45.00 TBT100320P00045000 0.70 0.03 0.67 0.70 275 5,419 46.00 TBT100320P00046000 1.08 0.10 1.00 1.04 20,599 2,814 47.00 TBT100320P00047000 1.51 0.10 1.46 1.51 537 2,084 48.00 TBT100320P00048000 2.14 0.18 2.05 2.10 233 3,182 49.00 TBT100320P00049000 2.82 0.40 2.75 2.81 47 1,904 50.00 TBT100320P00050000 3.95 0.75 3.55 3.60 45 1,733 51.00 TVT100320P00051000 3.45 0.00 4.35 4.45 0 972 52.00 TVT100320P00052000 5.00 0.00 5.25 5.40 0 1,045 53.00 TVT100320P00053000 5.60 0.00 6.15 6.65 0 380 54.00 TVT100320P00054000 7.65 1.50 7.10 7.60 10 341 55.00 TVT100320P00055000 7.20 0.00 8.10 8.55 0 371 56.00 TVT100320P00056000 7.89 0.00 9.05 9.55 0 230 57.00 TVT100320P00057000 9.58 0.00 10.05 10.55 0 156 58.00 TVT100320P00058000 10.10 0.00 11.00 11.60 0 162 59.00 TVT100320P00059000 10.80 0.00 12.00 12.55 0 11 60.00 TVT100320P00060000 10.70 0.00 13.00 13.55 0 116 61.00 TVT100320P00061000 10.95 0.00 14.00 14.55 0 23 63.00 TVT100320P00063000 15.00 0.00 15.95 16.50 0 47 64.00 TVT100320P00064000 13.10 0.00 16.95 17.50 0 25 65.00 TVT100320P00065000 14.85 0.00 17.95 18.50 0 25 66.00 TVT100320P00066000 15.00 0.00 18.95 19.50 0 139 67.00 TVT100320P00067000 15.95 0.00 19.95 20.50 0 126 68.00 TVT100320P00068000 17.80 0.00 20.95 21.55 0 47 69.00 TVT100320P00069000 22.25 0.00 21.95 22.50 0 13 75.00 TVT100320P00075000 27.80 0.00 27.95 28.55 0 1

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FUND HOLDINGS as of 2/5/10

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