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.
The page is initially sorted in descending Implied Volatility sequence. You can re-sort the page by clicking on any of the column headings.
In order to be included, For U.S. market, an option needs to have volume of greater than 500, open interest greater than 100, and implied volatility greater than 60%. For Canadian market, an option needs to have an implied volatility greater than 60%.
Options information is delayed a minimum of 30 minutes, and is updated once an hour, with the first update at 10:30am ET.
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.
Data Updates
For pages showing Intraday views, we use the current session's data, with new price data appear on the page as indicated by a "flash". Stocks: 15 minute delay (Cboe BZX data for U.S. equities is real-time), ET. Volume reflects consolidated markets. Futures and Forex: 10 or 15 minute delay, CT.
The list of symbols included on the page is updated every 10 minutes throughout the trading day. However, new stocks are not automatically added to or re-ranked on the page until the site performs its 10-minute update.
Page Sort
Pages are initially sorted in a specific order (depending on the data presented). You can re-sort the page by clicking on any of the column headings in the table.
Views
Most data tables can be analyzed using "Views." A View simply presents the symbols on the page with a different set of columns. Site members can also display the page using Custom Views. (Simply create a free account, log in, then create and save Custom Views to be used on any data table.)
Each View has a "Links" column on the far right to access a symbol's Quote Overview, Chart, Options Quotes (when available), Barchart Opinion, and Technical Analysis page. Standard Views found throughout the site include:
- Main View: Symbol, Name, Last Price, Change, Percent Change, High, Low, Volume, and Time of Last Trade.
- Technical View: Symbol, Name, Last Price, Today's Opinion, 20-Day Relative Strength, 20-Day Historic Volatility, 20-Day Average Volume, 52-Week High and 52-Week Low.
- Performance View: Symbol, Name, Last Price, Weighted Alpha, YTD Percent Change, 1-Month, 3-Month and 1-Year Percent Change.
- Fundamental View: Available only on equity pages, shows Symbol, Name, Weighted Alpha, Market Cap, P/E Ratio. Earnings Per Share, Beta, Return on Equity, and Price/Sales
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 10 downloads per day, while Barchart Premier Members may download up to 100 .csv files per day.
Should you require more than 50 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.
