$SRTY option bulls double money

Option traders are doubling their money in upside positions in the ProShares UltraPro Short Russell2000 ETF (SRTY) today.

On Jun. 14, Market Rebellion’s Unusual Activity Service detected the purchase of 2,500 July $8 calls, expiring this Friday, for $0.99 with shares at $8.73. Open interest in the strike before the trade occurred was just 171 contracts, showing that this was a new position.

Those calls have traded up to $2.13 so far this session, more than double their purchase price. The stock rose 16.15% in the same time frame, 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.

SRTY was last up by 4.09% to $10.18 today. The exchange-traded fund corresponds to 3x the inverse of the daily performance of the Russell 2000.