Options that are in the money such as is the case with SSNO will often trade at a premium because you can buy more of them for the same capital investment than buying heads, or buy the same but put less capital at risk. Options that are in the money tend to share all of the same upside but have less downside because they are cheaper to start with.
In the case of SSN if you purchased both options and heads on the same day in mid May the comparitive returns to date would look something like:
As you can see the return on every dollar invested in options has been massively higher for options over heads in SSN in recent months. Thats why people have been willing to pay a slight premium for them.
SSN Price at posting:
7.0¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held