$MSFT bulls triple their money

Patience has paid off for option traders who opened upside positions in Microsoft earlier this year.

Back on March 27, Investitute’s proprietary programs flagged the purchase of 2,000 September $105 calls in one print for $2.51. Shares were trading at $93.56.

Those calls rose to $8.70 this morning, 3.5 times their purchase price. The stock rallied 21.2% at the same time, a large move but nowhere near that of its options. Investitute co-founder Pete Najarian cited unusual activity at that time in shorter-term calls as well on CNBC’s “Halftime Report.”

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.

MSFT rose to $113.62 this morning but pulled back with the broader market to close at $112.14, down 1.08% on the session. The software giant reached an all-time high of $113.73 in Friday.