$ASHR bulls quadruple money

Option traders have logged exponential profits on upside positions in the Xtrackers Harvest CSI 300 China A Fund.

On Feb. 19, Investitute’s tracking systems detected the purchase of 11,000 18April $27.71 calls for $0.33 as part of a bullish roll with shares at $25.81. This was clearly a new position, as open interest in the strike was only 3,664 contracts before the activity appeared.

Those calls sold for as much as $1.57 just before today’s closing bell, nearly 5 times their purchase price. The stock rose 8.98% in the same time frame, showing how quickly options can far outpace gains in their underlying shares.

Long calls lock in the price where investors can buy a stock, letting them position for a rally at limited cost with the potential for significant leverage. They carry less risk than owning shares because the most that can be lost is the price of the options no matter how far the stock might fall.

ASHR jumped 6.27% to $28.13 today. The exchange-traded fund, which tracks China’s CSI 300 Index, has rallied on optimism for a Sino-U.S. trade deal.