Compare a retrieved sample of OTM put and call IV
This monitor groups provider-supplied implied volatilities by expiration. It reports the average IV of selected out-of-the-money puts minus the average IV of selected out-of-the-money calls. The difference describes this sample; it does not identify traders, institutional hedging, sentiment or a future price direction.
What is selected and what can be missing
- Enter a supported U.S. equity or ETF symbol and a maximum of 3, 5, 7 or 10 strikes per side. Analyze Skew requests a snapshot. It does not continuously refresh or monitor the market after the page closes.
- The page reads only the first provider page, capped at 250 contracts. Additional expirations, calls or puts may be outside that sample. The returned contract count and availability of another page are shown; no result is not proof that a contract does not exist.
- For each valid expiry, select finite positive IV observations: puts below spot, descending by strike; calls above spot, ascending by strike. Take up to the requested number, then reduce both sides to the smaller available count. The displayed counts and expandable strike list show the observations actually used.
- Inspect the difference in percentage points. If the put average is 30% and the call average is 25%, the result is +5 percentage points, not a 5% relative price difference. Positive means the selected put IV average is higher; it is not a validated fear score.
Pairs are matched by rank from spot, not by equal distance or delta. For a spot price of 100, a 95 put could be paired with a 102 call if those are the nearest available valid contracts. Changing the requested number, provider coverage or spot price can change the sample. This measure is not an exact 25-delta risk reversal or a constant-moneyness term structure.
Timing and coverage matter
The option snapshot endpoint is cached for up to one hour in this application; the separate underlying quote endpoint is cached for 30 seconds. Provider delays can be additional. The page labels retrieval time, not a synchronized option/underlying observation time. If the quote fails, an available underlying price from the option sample can be used and is identified as a fallback.
DTE is the difference between UTC calendar dates, including zero for the same UTC date. It is not hours until the exchange closes or a contract settlement clock. Missing IVs, malformed dates and duplicate type/strike observations are excluded. A zero IV is not substituted for missing data.
Saved retrievals are not a historical options database
The browser stores up to 200 successful per-expiry readings and displays up to the latest 50 for the active ticker. Repeated requests can record the same cached snapshot. Each record includes the requested strike count; it is not a continuous or synchronized time series, and changing samples makes direct comparisons imperfect.
Storage errors are visible. Records can remain available in the current visit even when saving fails. This version uses a separate storage format so older records without selection settings are not mixed with the new readings; it does not delete those older browser records. Clear All removes this version's history.
IV differences do not price a trade
A risk reversal combines a long call with a short put, or the reverse. Its debit or credit comes from actual premiums, quantities and execution prices, not simply the IV difference shown here. This tool does not model bid/ask spreads, margin, early assignment or payoff risk. A higher put IV alone does not justify selling protection or prove excess pricing.
Read the provider's option-chain snapshot description for available fields and filtering, and OIC volatility and Greeks for model context. The calculation is a descriptive comparison of available observations, not an investment recommendation or an automated execution system.