Junior gold miners draw upside bets

Traders are looking for Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF to rally.

optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker monitoring system detected the purchase of 5,000 January 19 calls for $1.25 to $1.35. Volume surpassed open interest of 1,659 contracts, an indication new money was put to work.

Calls fix the price where investors can buy stock, allowing them to profit from a rally with limited capital at risk. (See our Coaching section.) Their cheap cost can also generate significant leverage on a percentage basis if shares move in the right direction.

GDXJ rose 0.77 percent to $19.61 on Friday and is up 3 percent in the last month. The next quarterly report is estimated for pre-market hours on Dec. 31.

Overall option volume was 3 times greater than average. Calls outnumbered puts by a bullish 4-to-1 ratio.

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