This page shows equity options that have the highest implied volatility. 
Implied volatility is a theoretical value that measures the expected volatility of the underlying stock over the period of the option. It is an important factor to consider when understanding how an option is priced, as it can help traders determine if an option is fairly valued, undervalued, or overvalued. Generally speaking, traders look to buy an option when the implied volatility is low, and look to sell an option (or consider a spread strategy) when implied volatility is high. 


Implied volatility is determined mathematically by using current option prices and the Black-Scholes option pricing model. The resulting number helps traders determine whether the premium of an option is "fair" or not. It is also a measure of investors' predictions about future volatility of the underlying stock. Implied volatility rises when the demand for an option increases and when the market's expectations for the underlying stock is positive. You will see higher-priced option premiums on options with high volatility. On the other hand, implied volatility decreases with a lesser demand and when the underlying stock has a negative outlook. You will see higher-priced option premiums on options with high volatility, and cheaper premiums with low volatility.


It should also be noted that earnings announcements and news releases can have an impact on implied volatility. You may see a rise in implied volatility prior to an announcement, with a sharp drop-off in implied volatility afterwards.


What's Included

In order to be included: For U.S. market, an option needs to have volume of greater than 500, open interest greater than 100, a last price greater than 0.10, and implied volatility greater than 60%. For Canadian market, an option needs to have volume of greater than 25, open interest greater than 1, and implied volatility greater than 60%. For both U.S. and Canadian markets. we also show only options with days till expiration greater than 14.


Options information is delayed a minimum of 15 minutes, and is updated at least once every 15-minutes through-out the day.


Data Updates

Options information is delayed a minimum of 15 minutes, and is updated at least once every 15-minutes through-out the day.


Screen

Available only with a Premier Membership, you can base an Options Screener off the symbols currently on the page. This lets you add additional filters to further narrow down the list of candidates.


Example:

  • Click "Screen" on the page and the Options Screener opens, pulling in the symbols from the Highest Implied Volatility Options page.
  • Add additional criteria in the Screener, such as "Moneyness", or "Delta".
  • View the results and if you wish, save the Screener to run again at a later date.

Running a Saved Screener at a later date will always start with a new list of results. Your Saved Screener will always start with the most current set of symbols found on the Highest Implied Volatility Options page before applying your custom filters and displaying new results.


Page Sort

The page is initially sorted in descending Implied Volatility sequence. You can re-sort the page by clicking on any of the column headings.


Data Table Expand

Unique to Barchart.com, data tables contain an "expand" option. Click the "+" icon in the first column (on the left) to "expand" the table for the selected symbol. Scroll through widgets of the different content available for the symbol. Click on any of the widgets to go to the full page.


Horizontal Scroll on Wide Tables

Especially when using a custom view, you may find that the number of columns chosen exceeds the available space to show all the data. In this case, the table must be horizontally scrolled (left to right) to view all of the information. To do this, you can either scroll to the bottom of the table and use the table's scrollbar, or you can scroll the table using your browser's built-in scroll:

  • Left-click with your mouse anywhere on the table.
  • Use your keyboard's left and right arrows to scroll the table.
  • Repeat this anywhere as you move through the table to enable horizontal scrolling.


Flipcharts

Also unique to Barchart, FlipCharts allow you to scroll through all the symbols on the table in a chart view. While viewing FlipCharts, you can apply a custom Chart Template, further customizing the way you can analyze the symbols. FlipCharts are a free tool available to Site Members.


Download

Download is a free tool available to Site Members. This tool will download a .csv file for the View being displayed. For dynamically-generated tables (such as a Stock or ETF Screener) where you see more than 1000 rows of data, the download will be limited to only the first 1000 records on the table. For other static pages (such as the Russell 3000 Components list) all rows will be downloaded.


Free members are limited to 5 downloads per day, while Barchart Premier Members may download up to 100 .csv files per day.


Should you require more than 100 downloads per day, please contact Barchart Sales at 866-333-7587 or email solutions@barchart.com for more information or additional options about historical market data.