QQQ Implied Volatility

ATM implied volatility, IV percentile, and the volatility risk premium for QQQ options. See whether QQQ's IV is rich or cheap versus its own trailing year and versus realized moves.

ATM IV
24.9%
Realized Vol 20d
24.2%

Volatility Smile

How QQQ's IV is distributed across strikes for the nearest expiration. Data from the public vol surface endpoint.

IV Term Structure

How QQQ's IV is distributed across expirations. Contango (rising) is normal; backwardation (inverted) signals a near-term event.

What implied volatility tells you

Implied volatility (IV) is the market's forecast of how much QQQ is expected to move, expressed as an annualized percentage and backed out of the price traders are actually paying for QQQ options.

Higher IV means options are pricing in bigger expected swings and cost more; lower IV means the market expects calmer conditions and options are cheaper.

High or low for QQQ?

IV percentile is the share of the past year's daily IV readings that sit below today's IV. A percentile above 80 means QQQ's current IV is richer than at least 80% of the last year, i.e. statistically high. Below 20 means it's statistically cheap.

This is different from IV rank, which places today's IV between the past year's high and low instead of counting where it falls in the full distribution; a single outlier spike can distort rank without moving percentile.

IV vs realized: the premium

The volatility risk premium (VRP) is implied volatility minus realized volatility. A positive VRP means QQQ options have been priced above the moves that actually happened, the edge options sellers try to harvest. See VRP for the full breakdown.

Frequently Asked Questions - QQQ Implied Volatility

What is QQQ's implied volatility right now?

QQQ's current ATM implied volatility is 24.9%, shown live above. Full IV history, percentile, and term structure are available programmatically via GET /v1/volatility/qqq, a Growth-tier endpoint.

What is a high IV for QQQ?

IV percentile is the share of the past year's daily IV readings that sit below today's IV. A percentile above 80 means IV is richer than at least 80% of the last year, i.e. statistically high; below 20 means it's statistically cheap. This is different from IV rank, which places today's IV between the past year's high and low instead of counting where it falls in the full distribution.