Traders triple their money in $KO

It took just two sessions for option traders to collect big profits in Coca-Cola.

On Wednesday, Investitute’s market scanners identified the purchase of 4,500 February $44 calls for $0.47 to $0.61 with shares at $43.98. These were clearly new positions, as open interest in the strike was only 1,312 contracts before the trades occurred. Investitute co-founder Pete Najarian chose KO as his final trade yesterday on CNBC’s “Halftime Report.”

Those calls sold for $1.56 this morning, more than 3 times their original purchase price. The stock rose 3.5% in the same time frame, 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.

KO was up 0.45% to $44.98 today. The beverage giant surpassed expectations on the top and bottom lines before the market opened this morning.