Another win for bulls in $LLNW

Option traders doubled their money in Limelight Networks today, its second winning play in three sessions.

On Wednesday, Investitute’s market scanners identified the purchase of 3,000 May $4 calls for $0.40 to $0.55 as part of a bullish roll with shares at $4.30. Open interest in the strike was only 731 contracts before the trade occurred, showing that this was a new position.

Those calls traded for $1.20 this afternoon, 3 times their original purchase price. The stock rose 19.5% in the same time frame, illustrating how quickly options can far outpace gains in their underlying shares. In addition, the April $4 calls that were updated on Wednesday traded for $1.10 today, more than 7 times their purchase price as the stock rallied 33.2%.

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.

LLNW spiked higher by 21.71% to $4.99 today. The content-delivery service raised guidance after beating first-quarter estimates on the top and bottom lines yesterday afternoon.