Altera (ALTR, news, chart) saw bearish order flow Tuesday morning. The stock is up 4 cents to $23.89 and volume in the options market running three times the usual. Today’s action includes 14,000 ALTR puts and just 142 call options. Most of the action has been in the September 25/22.5 and December 25/22.5 put spreads. For example, just before 10:30 Eastern time, with ALTR trading for $23.86 a share, 4,000 of the September 25 puts traded offerside for $1.72 a contract on the ISE. The same numbe rof 22.5s traded mid market for 52 cents. While the action is possibly closing, it is more likely that an investor was buying a put spread for a net debit of $1.20 and a potential payoff of $1.30 if ALTR falls below $22.5 a share by September options expiration. Similar trading was seen in the Decembers, where 3,000 25s traded askside for $2.67 a contract and another 3,000 22.5s traded bidside for $1.42. No news on ALTR today. Applied Materials (AMAT) reports after the close (more on AMAT later today).