Upside trades in junior gold miners

Traders are looking for Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners Fund to rally by early next year.

optionMONSTER's Heat Seeker monitoring system detected the purchase of 5,000 January 19 calls for $1.25 to $1.35 on Friday. Volume surpassed open interest of 1,659 contracts, showing that these are new positions.

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

GDXJ rose 0.77 percent to $19.61 on Friday and is up 3 percent in the last month.

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

More From optionMONSTER