How to make a 3,000% return in two hours…

How would you like to make a 3,000% return in the market in just two hours? Impossible, you say? Actually, an unknown trader apparently lived this dream just last week.

At 9:58 AM on Thursday, July 24, while shares of SodaStream ( SODA ) were trading at $29.50, someone bought $7,500 worth of SODA July 25 30 calls. He (or she) paid $0.15 each for these options . If you aren't familiar with options lingo, what our hero/heroine got for this money was the right to buy SODA stock at $30, any time during before the close of trading the next day , after which the options would expire-and yes, since SODA was trading below that price, that right had no intrinsic value.

Then, at 11:45 AM, Bloomberg reported that SodaStream was in talks with an investment firm that reportedly planned to take the company private in a deal that would be worth $40 per share to SodaStream investors. Soon enough, SODA stock was trading at $36 per share, and each of those call options had an intrinsic value of $6. (Though the market was valuing SODA at $36, the options trader still had the right to buy shares at $30.) Had the trader sold his options at the peak of their value, the return would have been approximately $6 on every $0.15 invested, that's a 40X return, but SODA shares fell quickly after that, and the trader's exit timing was not perfect but merely uncanny, so the actual return came out to be about 30X, or 3,000%.

The trader made a profit of $217,500 and still had time for lunch, and I'm guessing it was a nice one. I hope it was, in fact, since the trader may not have many tasty lunches left to look forward to. Before I explain, however, I implied I would provide instructions on how to achieve this sort of return, so if you are still interested, here are three ways:

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This article was originally published on MarketIntelligeneCenter.com

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.