Bulls double money in $DATA

Tableau Software (DATA) spiked higher on news that it was being acquired by Salesforce.com today, yielding huge gains on upside option positions.

On Feb. 20, Investitute’s market scanners identified the purchase of 9,985 October $120 calls in one print for $22 as part of a bullish roll with shares at $127.91. There was no open interest in the strike before that session began, showing that this was a new position.

Those calls traded for as much as $54.20 today, about 2.5 times their purchase price. The stock rose 34.47% in the same time period, a large gain but still nowhere near that of its options on a relative basis.

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.

DATA was trading at $168 this afternoon, up 34.17% on the session. This morning Salesforce.com (CRM) announced plans to buy the data-analysis company for $15.7 billion.