Sea stock has added an enormous 222% over the past 12 months
Software name Sea Ltd. (NYSE:SE) more than tripled in 2019, and over the last few months have been on a steady trend higher. Just last week SE touched a record high of $46.50, and is not far off this afternoon, trading at $45.24 at last check. With a layer of support embedded in the rising 20-day moving average, and the shares now up 222% year-over-year, its no surprise that a new bull signal is flashing for the equity.
SE's surge comes amid historically low implied volatility (IV) -- a combination that has been bullish for the stock in the past. According to data from Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White, there have been three other instances in the past five years when Sea stock was trading within 2% of its 52-week high, while its Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) sat in the 20th annual percentile or lower -- as is the case with Sea stock's current SVI of 44%, in the 9th percentile of its 12-month range. These levels conjured up an average 21-day surge of 8.9%, with all of the returns positive.
In the options pits, the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) ranks in the 74th percentile of its annual range. In simpler terms, this shows a larger-than-usual
put-skew among options traders. An unwinding of these bearish bets could trigger a surge in SE shares.