Traders bet that this Dow outperformer will pop before the end of the year

• Traders are betting that Microsoft moves higher before the end of the year.
• On Thursday investors bought more than 13,000 calls at the December 103 strike price, according to Investitute co-founder and "Halftime Report" contributor Pete Najarian.
• Microsoft is up more than 18% this year, and is one of only five Dow components set to end the year with a double-digit gain.

Stocks losses accelerated on Thursday with the Nasdaq dipping into bear market territory.

But traders are betting that there's upside ahead for one tech stalwart.

On Thursday investors bought more than 13,000 Microsoft calls at the December 103 strike price, according to Investitute co-founder Pete Najarian. These particular calls expire on December 28th, so it's a very short term bet that the stock moves higher before the end of the year.

The Washington-based company is the Dow's second-best performer this year, and it's one of only 5 components on pace to end the year with a double-digit gain.

Microsoft trades at 22.9X next year's earnings, and yields 1.81%.

Disclosure: Pete Najarian owns Microsoft.