$AAPL bulls double their money on a trillion

Timely option trades made this morning doubled before the closing bell as AAPL shares crossed the $207.05 threshold, leading Apple to be the first company to claim the trillion dollar market cap.

Just this morning, Investitute’s market scanners found that 11,228 Weekly $202.50 calls expiring on Aug. 10 were bought for $2.90 and $2.91 as part of a bullish roll with shares at $202.38. This was clearly a new position, as open interest in the strike was only 8,083 contracts before the activity appeared.

Those calls traded for as much as $6.65 this afternoon, more than twice their purchase prices, in just over 4 hours. The stock rose 2.95% at the same time, illustrating how quickly options can far outperform 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.

AAPL jumped 2.92% to $207.39 today. The maker of the popular iPhone reported earnings Tuesday afternoon and disclosed it was on track to double 2016 revenues by 2021, as well as noting that wearables and services drove the reported quarter.