$NTNX bulls double money overnight

Option traders have more than doubled their money in Nutanix (NTNX) today, on positions opened just yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday on Dec. 8, Market Rebellion’s Unusual Activity Service found that 5,000 Weekly $29.50 calls expiring this Friday were bought for $0.40 to $0.72 with shares at $29.26. This was clearly a new position, as open interest in the strike was a mere 688 contracts before that session began.

Those calls traded for as much as $1.90 today, more than 2.5 times their purchase prices. The stock rose 6.94% in the same time frame, a large move but still far below that of its options on a relative basis.

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.

NTNX was up 0.68% to $29.73 today. The business-cloud technology company announced Rajiv Ramaswami as its new CEO this morning.