LEAP Wireless International, Inc. (LEAP: sentiment, chart, options) was pummeled by pessimistic option players on Wednesday, after a Piper Jaffray analyst said the wireless carrier could be hurt by increasing competition. According to data from WhatsTrading.com, the security saw roughly 4,200 puts change hands yesterday nearly 6.5 times the stock's average daily volume of fewer than 650 bearish bets.

As a result, the equity's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) jumped higher overnight, from 1.15 (in the 62nd annual percentile) to 1.25 (in the 69th annual percentile). In other words, near-term traders have been more skeptically skewed toward LEAP only 31% of the time during the past year.

Most popular yesterday was the stock's July 30 put, which saw single-session volume of more than 1,500 contracts. Put open interest at the at-the-money 30 strike now stands at roughly 2,000 contracts. Nevertheless, the deep-out-of-the-money 12.50 strike remains home to peak put open interest in the front-month series, with 8,628 contracts in residence.

At last check, the shares of LEAP had surrendered $1.11, or 3.6%, to flirt with the $29.45 level. After underperforming the broader S&P 500 Index (SPX) by 15% during the past 60 trading sessions, the security is now in danger of closing the month beneath support at its 10-month moving average for the first time since February.