Calls triple overnight in $ABT

Bullish positions that were opened in Abbott Laboratories only one session earlier yielded exponential gains today.

Just yesterday, Investitute’s proprietary programs found that 2,500 Weekly $79 calls expiring on March 22 were bought for $0.42 to $0.51 with shares at $78.46. Open interest in the strike was only 104 contracts before the trades occurred, showing that these new positions.

Those calls traded for as much as $1.42 today, 3 times their average purchase price. The stock rose 2.26% at the same time, illustrating the kind of leverage that can be achieved quickly with options.

Long calls lock in the price where a stock can be purchased, gaining with a rally and providing leverage to the underlying shares. The contracts can quickly lose value if the stock stalls or pulls back but also carry less risk than owning the shares themselves.

ABT was up 1.43% to $79.96. The drug maker reached an all-time high of $80.25 this afternoon after presenting at the American College of Cardiology conference over the weekend.