Assuming this trade was a ratio spread, the trader might have sold 58, 000 October 4 puts, thus creating a two-to-one ratio with the purchased 29, 000 October 5 puts.

FORBES: Bank of America Puts Gain Popularity; Ratio Spread in Focus

It looks like the trader is positioning for significant, albeit limited, downside movement in the price of the underlying by employing a ratio put spread.

FORBES: Kinetic Concepts LBO Talk Fuels Flurry of Options Activity, Nice 2,100% Score

The largest transaction in Safeway options today was the one-by-two ratio put spread initiated in the March expiry in the first half of the trading session.

FORBES: Options Players Bet On GM Staying Stuck At $24, Load Up On Progressive Calls

The largest single trade on YHOO today, a one-by-two ratio call spread, suggests the price of the underlying may post limited gains during the first seven months of 2012.

FORBES: Options Player Bets Big On Yahoo Bounce, Bears Speculate On Lululemon Losing Its Lift

Worries about export earnings, given Argentina's high debt-to-export ratio, increase the interest-rate spread the country pays over United States interest rates, which have themselves risen this year.

ECONOMIST: Another president caught in Argentina’s economic trap | The

According to Emanuele Baldacci and other economists at the IMF, a sustained rise in public spending by 1% of GDP, spread evenly across health, education and pensions, would increase the ratio of household consumption to GDP by 1.25 percentage points.

ECONOMIST: Chinese consumption is about much more than shopping

At spread-betting firm City Index, the male-to-female ratio of punters is 10:1.

BBC: The psychology of the rogue trader