Bulls triple money overnight in $P

Traders tuned into quick gains in Pandora today amid a wave of bullish option activity.

Just yesterday, Investitute’s tracking systems showed that 4,000 Weekly $8.50 calls expiring on Oct. 5 were purchased for $0.34 to $0.50 with shares at $8.29. This was clearly fresh buying, as open interest in the strike was a mere 15 contracts before the trades occurred. Investitute co-founders Jon and Pete Najarian cited that activity and three more bullish trades in Pandora that occurred during today’s session alone on CNBC’s “Halftime Report” this afternoon.

Those calls traded up to $1.19 today, 3.5 times their initial purchase price. The stock rose 12.3% at the same time, underscoring 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.

P jumped 5.15% to $9.18 today. A report by Raymond James analysts yesterday found that the music service and rival Spotify topped the list of app downloads in the space from June 1 to Aug. 28, surpassing Apple and Google.