Today’s tickers: DNKN, PFCB, DDD & PLCE DNKN  - Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc. –  A burst of activity in calls and puts covering Dunkin’ Brands Group may be one investor’s way of preparing for a less than savory third-quarter earnings report when the company reveals its performance on November 2. Shares in the operator of Dunkin Donuts and Baskin-Robbins fell 0.90% to $28.16 this afternoon, and are down roughly 11.8% off the company’s post-IPO high of $31.94. The options combo initiated in the November contract this morning yields maximum benefits to its owner if shares in Dunkin’ suffer a nearly 30.0% pullback in the next six weeks. It looks like the investor responsible for the trade sold around 500 calls at the Nov. $30 strike for a premium of $1.375 each, in order to cover the cost of buying a roughly 500-lot Nov. $20/$25 put spread at a net premium of $0.90 each. The trader pockets a net credit of $0.475 per contract on the three-way spread, which he keeps as long as shares in DNKN fail to rally above $30.00 through November expiration. Additional profits are available to the investor should shares breach the $25.00-level, while maximum possible gains of $5.475 – including the net credit – are realized by the trader in the event that DNKN’s shares plummet nearly 30.0% to trade below $20.00 at expiration day. As far as possible motives behind the three-legged spread go, the potential for a disappointing third-quarter report represents just one possible explanation, as performance in U.S. equities across the board has tended to turn on a dime on negative or positive headlines out of Europe. The investor responsible for the transaction may be taking an outright bearish stance on the stock, or may be using the position to hedge long stock in DNKN through earnings. The short calls at the $30.00 strike may require the trader to deliver approximately 50,000 shares of the underlying that he may or may not already own at expiration…