Protection Purchased on Diana Shipping (DSX)

Shares of Diana Shipping Inc.

are higher on the session by 1.61%, currently trading at $11.99. The stock has been moving largely lower over the past six months and is trading below the 50-day moving average. Options traders are buying protection on the name today. The March 2011 $11.00 put was purchased 1,154 times, on the offer, for $1.15 a short while ago; open interest on the strike is only 100 contracts. This signals fresh positioning on the name. Put volume is now running at 7.62x the daily average. Diana Shipping Inc. is a holding company. The company is a global provider of shipping transportation services. It specializes in transporting dry bulk cargoes, including such commodities as iron ore, coal, grain and other materials along worldwide shipping routes. As of December 31, 2009, its fleet consists of 22 dry bulk carriers, of which 14 are Panamax and eight are Capesize dry bulk carriers, having a combined carrying capacity of approximately 2.4 million dead weight tons.