Consumer spending in the US accounts for roughly two-thirds of Gross Domestic Product. When banks aren't lending and inflated oil prices are creating pain at the pump, how much consumption can we expect out of consumers? Maybe not too much. What can an investor do?

Consider buying a call option or a bull call vertical on USO; this is an oil ETF - the investment seeks to reflect the performance, less expenses, of the spot price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light, sweet crude oil.

Buying USO outright with oil pushing up against the stratosphere might make you nervous, and understandably so. Employing the call option or the bull call spread, however, allows one to define his maximum risk in advance and still participate to some degree in further advances.

If oil comes tumbling down, consumer spending might pick up. In turn, the outlook for equities might improve and an investor could see the stock side of his holdings getting a boost. In that scenario, the option play on USO could go totally bust. But if oil loosened its grip on consumers' ability to, well, consume, the equity side of a well-diversified portfolio should more than offset the losses on the oil "hedge" (provided the investor didn't over-hedge with the call or the bull spread on oil.)

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