Traders win both ways in $X

Nimble option traders made big money on bearish positions in U.S. Steel recently, and today they turned quick profits on bullish plays as well.

Just after the opening bell this morning, Investitute’s proprietary programs found that 1,800 Weekly $30 calls expiring this Friday were purchased for $0.13 with shares at $28.13. Volume was well above the strike’s open interest of 777 contracts, indicating that this was fresh buying.

Those calls traded for $0.38 this morning, about 3 times their purchase price. The stock rose 4.09% at the same time, showing how quickly options can far outpace gains in their underlying shares. Today’s call trade follows winning put positions posted on Investitute in late October.

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.

X was up 3.18% to $28.86 today. The steel maker’s quarterly revenues topped expectations at the end of last week.