Today’s tickers: EWJ, GIS, XING & DLTR EWJ  - iShares MSCI Japan Index Fund –  A couple of bearish options trades on the EWJ caught our eye today with shares in the fund dropping nearly 2.0% at the start of the session to an intraday low of $10.42. Shares in the ETF pared some of the morning’s losses this afternoon, and currently stand 0.95% lower on the day at $10.53. The price of the underlying shares at $10.53 represents a 13.0% recovery off of the EWJ’s post-earthquake low of $9.24. One investor appears to have taken a medium-term bearish stance on the fund by selling calls to offset the cost of buying put options. The trader sold 14,250 calls at the June $11 strike for a premium of $0.31 each, and purchased the same number of puts at the lower June $10 strike at a premium of $0.44 apiece. Net premium paid for the spread amounts to $0.13 per contract. The investor profits if the EWJ’s shares decline 6.3% in the next few months to slip beneath the effective breakeven point to the downside at $9.87 by June expiration. Meanwhile, substantial volume in April contract calls today appears to be the work of an investor taking down one leg of a bullish risk reversal initiated last Tuesday. Around 105,000 calls sold today at the April $11 strike for a premium of $0.08 per contract. Most of the volume at that strike likely represents the closing sale of some 102,500 calls that were originally purchased last week. The original transaction involved the sale of 102,500 puts at the April $8.0 strike for a premium of $0.10 each, against the purchase of the same number of calls at the April $11 strike at a premium of $0.14 apiece. Perhaps the trader is less optimistic about the prospects for a near-term rebound in the price of the underlying fund today than he was eight days ago. Over 260,000 option contracts have changed hands on the EWJ as of 1:30pm in New York.…