$SYMC calls post quick gains

It took barely a week for bullish option traders to double their money in Symantec.

On Sept. 11, Investitute’s proprietary programs found that 1,680 Weekly $20 calls expiring on Sept. 28 were purchased for $0.38 to$ 0.45 with shares at $19.85. Open interest in the strike was only 174 contracts before the trades occurred, showing that this was fresh buying. Investitute co-found Pete Najarian chose SYMC as his final trade on CNBC’s “Halftime Report” yesterday.

Those calls traded for $0.82 today, twice their average purchase price. The stock rose 4.38% in the same time, illustrating the kind of leverage that can be achieved with options. Symatec also saw a winning trade posted on Investitute last month.

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.

SYMC was up 0.15% to $20.70 today. The cybersecurity company fell sharply after its last earnings report in early August but has since erased all of those losses.