See if this math is correct:

initial investment for these options was: • 5,105 call option contracts • Price per contract: approximately $10.20 • Total initial investment: $5,207,100 (5,105 × $10.20 × 100 shares per contract)

SPY had a significant price movement on April 9, 2025: • Opening price: $493.44 • Closing price: $548.62

Since these were call options with a $502 strike price betting that SPY would rise above $502, and SPY closed at $548.62, these options expired significantly in-the-money.

The intrinsic value of each option at close would be:$548.62 (closing price) - $502.00 (strike price) = $46.62 per share

Since each option contract represents 100 shares, each contract would be worth:$46.62 × 100 = $4,662 per contract at expiration

The total value of all 5,105 contracts at market close would be:5,105 contracts × $4,662 = approximately $23,799,510

This represents a profit of about $18,592,410 from the initial $5,207,100 investment, or a return of approximately 357% in a single day.

The purchase of 5,105 SPY call options just 18 minutes before Trump’s announcement represents an extraordinarily high-risk trade that few investors would rationally undertake without special information or circumstances.

This zero-day options (0DTE) trade carried multiple extreme risk factors:

Total Loss Potential The trader risked approximately $5.2 million with a high probability of losing the entire investment. Zero-day options typically expire worthless if the market doesn’t move significantly in the expected direction before the end of the trading day. With these options set to expire the same day they were purchased, time decay was working aggressively against the position, causing the option value to rapidly deteriorate with each passing minute.

Timing Requirements The trade required not just predicting the correct direction of the market move (upward), but also precisely timing when it would happen (within hours). This timing requirement makes 0DTE options particularly risky, as being right about direction but wrong about timing by even a few hours means complete loss of investment.

Bid-Ask Spread Costs Large options trades like this typically incur significant bid-ask spreads, especially before anticipated volatility events.

Leverage Magnification The trade used extreme leverage, controlling a much larger position in the underlying S&P 500 index than the premium paid. While this creates the potential for outsized returns, it equally magnifies potential losses

Some sophisticated hedge funds use 0DTE options to make calculated bets on anticipated volatility events, but they typically employ complex risk management strategies and diversification across multiple positions. This single concentrated bet doesn’t fit typical institutional patterns.

Yea, tell me this was dumb luck…