Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG), General Electric Co (GE), Electronic Arts Inc (ERTS), and Schlumberger Limited (SLB) were among the stocks showing a bias toward put buying on Thursday.

Fortress Investment Group appeared earlier on today's scan for unusually heavy stock volume and here we see that options buyers on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) showed an interest in puts. Jocelynn Drake covered the stock yesterday but I wanted to offer a quick noted on the daily chart. The shares recently broke out of a trading range and are now pulling back to potentially retest that former resistance as support. I like to watch retests as a way to gauge the pool of sideline capital.

Thursday's call scan showed optimism on General Electric and here we see a mild uptick in skepticism. The stock is still sitting just above the support I discussed. Even though there has been a slight increase in relative put activity, I still think the risk of a downside break is something to keep in mind.

The mild put buys on Electronic Arts are worth noting but the stock still needs to do some work. The daily chart shows that shares of ERTS are in a short-term uptrend but contained in a trading range. A break above 22 would be needed to clear that range. Of course, as I alluded to above, I would then look for a retest to confirm the breakout.

And speaking of retests, check out the chart of Schlumberger. The shares recently pushed through a wide swath of congestion and are now testing that as support. I am watching for two things to happen here. The first is whether the equity can hold here. Assuming that happens, the next constructive event would be a push above 60. If the stock can do that, the next layer of resistance doesn't kick in until 75.

This filtered scan is based on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) buy-to-open data. It looks for stocks where the previous day's put volume on the ISE is at least twice as great as the call volume. It then sorts the stocks based on the put volume. Since this is buy-to-open data, this can be a good source for finding stocks where skepticism is emerging. Of particular interest to me would be situations where we see put activity on stocks that are still in intermediate-term uptrends. This would be a potentially encouraging sign from the contrarian perspective.

Other companies seeing a skew towards puts in the previous session: SPDR Trust Series I (SPY), PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQQ), Wells Fargo & Co (WFC), KEYCORP (KEY), Whole Foods Market (WFMI), Nordstrom (JWN), KLA-Tencor (KLAC), Energizer Holdings, Inc (ENR), SAP Aktiengesellschaft Systeme (SAP), Tessera Technologies (TSRA), Wynn Resorts Limited (WYNN), United States Steel Corp (X), Limited Brands (LTD), Urban Outfitters (URBN), QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM), State Street (STT), Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC), CF Industries Holdings (CF), Motorola (MOT), Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. (ANR), Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR).