How Do They Know?

Protective Life Corp (PL) has seen huge gains since Friday’s close, up more than $17.00 on the week. The stock jumped on the news that Japanese life insurance company Dai-Ichi Life Insurance would pay a pretty penny for the American financial services provider, around $5.7 billion. Dai-Ichi announced it would pay $70.00 a share for PL, a hefty premium of Fridays close.

The deal made traders long PL on Friday a fortune. For example, a trader bought 1000 PL June 60 Calls for 1.25 for a total cash outlay of $125,000. The next day, the same call options were worth $9.30, netting the trader $805,000, otherwise known as 650% returns overnight.