$SNAP wins again for bulls

Option traders doubled their money on upside positions in Snap today.

On Feb. 22, Investitute’s market scanners identified the purchase of 10,000 May $10 calls for $0.90 and $0.91 with shares at $9.66. This was clearly a new position, as open interest in the strike was only 401 contracts before that session began.

Those calls traded up to $1.98 today, more than twice their purchase prices. The stock rose 18.63% in the same time period, illustrating the kind of leverage that can be achieved 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.

It is the third winning trade in the name posted on Investitute in as many weeks.

SNAP spiked to a session high of $11.51 this morning before pulling back to close at $$11.16, off 0.53% on the session. On March 14, BTIG upgraded the social-network stock to “buy” from “neutral” with a $15 price objective while Jefferies raised its target to $11 from $9.