Bulls triple their money playing $ATVI

It took only one week for option traders to triple their money in Activision Blizzard (ATVI).

On Aug. 20, Our market scanners identified the purchase of 3,500 Weekly $50 calls, expiring on 06September, for $0.71 to $0.78 with shares at $48.44. This was clearly fresh buying, as open interest in the strike was only 97 contracts before the activity appeared.

Those calls have sold for $2.33 so far this morning, better than 3 times their average purchase price. The stock rose 6.5% 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.

ATVI is currently up 3.59% to $50.44 today. The game developer today has traded at its highest level since November of last year.