Call prices quintuple in $SYF

It took only a week for bullish option traders to run up exponential gains in Synchrony Financial.

On Jan. 16, Investitute’s market scanners found that 5,000 Weekly $27 calls expiring this Friday were purchased for $0.54 to $0.61 as part of a bullish roll with shares at $26.35. This was clearly a new position, as open interest in the strike was only 151 contracts before the activity appeared.

Those calls traded for as much as $2.70 this morning, more than 4 times their purchase prices. The stock rose

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.

SYF surged 10.73% to $29.40 today. The financial-services firm rallied after topping quarterly estimates and extending its partnership with Walmart’s (WMT) Sam’s Club this morning.