Today’s tickers: LYG, XLV, MSFT, XLF, F, AZN, LYV, AZO, MW & XLNX LYG - Lloyd’s Banking Group PLC – One optimistic options strategist initiated a short put stance on Lloyd’s Banking Group PLC today, suggesting perhaps that shares of the underlying stock are not likely to collapse much further ahead of October expiration. Lloyd’s Banking Group shares fell as much as 8.9% to an intraday low of $2.88 in morning trading, but recovered slightly during the session to stand 5.05% off yesterday’s close at $3.16 a share as of 2:45 pm (ET). Across the pond, Lloyd’s Banking Group shares declined the most in London trading, falling 8.9% to 50.52 pence, as concerns over the creditworthiness of European financial institutions continues to weigh heavily on U.K. banking stocks. But, back to U.S. equity options on LYG, the contrarian investor opted to sell short 4,000 puts at the October $2.5 strike in order to pocket premium of $0.30 per contract. The trader keeps the full amount of premium received on the sale as long as LYG’s share price exceeds $2.50 through expiration day in October. The short sale of put options in this case implies the investor is happy to have 400,000 shares of the underlying stock put to him at an effective price of $2.20 each should the put contracts land in-the-money at expiration. XLV - Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund – A large chunk of out-of-the-money put options were purchased on the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund today as part of a delta neutral trade enacted by one cautiously optimistic options player. Shares of the XLV, an exchange-traded fund designed to produce investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of the Health Care Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index, declined 0.65% to stand at $28.54 as of 3:35 pm (ET). It looks like the investor purchased up to 22,500 put options with a .31 delta at the September $26 strike for a premium of $1.08 per contract. The trader picked up the puts in conjunction with the purchase of stock at $28.25 a-pop. The delta neutral transaction is meant to offset potential losses faced by the investor should shares of the XLV continue lower because of the larger proportion of put options held by the trader. The purchase of shares of the underlying stock in combination with the put options indicates the investor is taking an optimistic…