An investor who bought 759 bullish AirTran Holdings Inc. options last week captured a 14-fold gain today after Southwest Airlines Co. agreed to buy the company.
Trading of November $5 calls on Sept. 21 was triple the four-week daily average for all AirTran contracts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The calls, which changed hands for 15 cents, surged to $2.21 today as AirTran stock jumped as much as 60 percent to $7.28. The Orlando, Florida-based carrier hasn’t closed above $5 since June.
“It does appear suspicious,” said Henry Schwartz, president of Trade Alert LLC, a New York-based provider of options-market analytics. “Somebody may have had some information that something was in the works.”
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