Bulls double money in $PSA

An upside position opened in Public Storage (PSA) on New Year’s Eve is paying off big time now, as bulls double their money.

On Dec. 31, Investitute’s tracking systems detected the purchase of 5,000 June $210 calls in one print for $9.40 with shares at $201.06. This was clearly a new position, as open interest in the strike was a mere 37 contracts before that session began. Investitute co-founder Jon Najarian cited the unusual activity at that time on CNBC’s “Halftime Report.”

Those calls traded for as much as $25.20 today, more than 2.5 times their purchase price. The stock rose 16.88% in the same time period, underscoring how 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.

PSA was up 0.77% to $236.23 today. The self-storage real-estate investment trust topped revenue estimates in its last quarterly report on April 2.