$MARA bulls score in one session

Marathon Patent Group (MARA) rallied sharply today, returning exponential gains on option positions opened just one session earlier.

On Feb. 8, Market Rebellion’s Unusual Activity Service found that 8,000 Weekly $30 calls expiring this Friday, Feb. 12, were bought for $1.16 to $2.78 with shares at $26.00. This was clearly fresh buying, as open interest in the strike was only 1,517 contracts before that session began.

Those calls traded for $10.10 this morning, at least triple their purchase prices. The stock surged 52.65% in the same time period, an enormous move but one that was still dwarfed by the gain 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.

MARA spiked to a 52-week high of $39.74 early this morning but closed at $37.59, still up 17.21% on the session. The bitcoin miner has seen its shares rise sharply, alongside some of its industry-related peers, as the cryptocurrency market, and Bitcoin, have been on the rise.