SMCI is up 90.7% since the start of the month
IT stock Super Micro Computer Inc (NASDAQ:SMCI) just staged a massive rally, up 90.7% since the start of February. Now on track for a third-straight daily loss, the stock is slipping from last week's five-month peak, and on the short sell restricted (SSR) list amid the volatility.
SMCI has remained popular among options traders amid the upturn. The stock once again made its way onto Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White's list of stocks with the highest options volume in the past 10 days. In this period, 12,786,779 calls and 6,860,390 puts were exchanged, with most activity at the February 60 call. Notably, the top five contracts over the past two weeks were calls.
Options traders leaned bullish over the past 10 weeks as well. The stock's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 2.08 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) sits in the 98th percentile of its annual range, showing a strong preference for calls.
Options look like a good way to weigh in on SMCI, too, as it has tended to outperform options traders' volatility expectations over the past year. This is per its Schaeffer’s Volatility Scorecard (SVS) of 94 out of 100.
Meanwhile, short interest has been building despite the positive price action, up 18.8% over the past two weeks, and now represents 18.3% of the stock's available float.