Bulls Bank on Gains in JPMorgan

By Pete Najarian, co-founder of OptionMonster

NEW YORK -- JPMorgan Chase (JPM) was active along with other banks on Friday as traders bet that there is still more upside in the name.

Buying hit our scanners early in the February 50 calls, with traders paying 8 cents and 9 cents for a quick 7,800 contracts. The activity would continue and volume would top 40,000 contracts by the end of the session, according to OptionMonster's tracking systems. Premiums also doubled to 17 cents.

Those calls lock in the price where investors can buy shares. They can generate some nice leverage in the event of a rally but also stand to become worthless if the stock doesn't move.

JPMorgan's shares rose 0.04% to $46.46 on Friday and are up almost 18% in the last two months. The bulls were piling into other financial names as well, including Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs.

Calls outnumbered puts in JPM by 153,000 to 33,000, a big sign of the optimistic sentiment.

Najarian owns JPM calls.

This commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet guest contributor program. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of TheStreet or its management.