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For volatility & relative-value desks

The raw material for relative-value volatility trades.

Arbitrage-free SVI surfaces, variance versus volatility risk premium, per-strike term structure and arbitrage detection, computed and served, so you trade the dislocations instead of building the plumbing.

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Implied volatility smile SPX
OTM putsATMOTM calls
arbitrage-free SVI fit
📘 Complete guide Complete Guide to Volatility Relative-Value Trading For vol-arb desks: SVI surfaces, variance vs vol risk premium, dispersion, term structure, and the kinks. 18 min read Read the guide →
Same JSON live & historical
No lookahead bias
REST + Python/JS/C#/Go/Java SDKs
6,000+ tickers, computed per-tick
The problem

What the usual options data leaves you fighting

01

Raw chains give you noisy per-strike IVs, not a clean arbitrage-free surface.

02

You rebuild SVI fits and variance surfaces in-house for every name, every day.

03

Variance risk premium and volatility risk premium get conflated and mispriced.

What FlashAlpha gives you

Skip the surface-engineering: arbitrage-free SVI fits, variance-surface and var-swap calculations, higher-order greek surfaces and arb detection arrive ready to trade.

One call, ready to use
curl -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  "https://lab.flashalpha.com/v1/adv_volatility/SPX"
{
  "symbol": "SPX",
  "svi_params": { "a": 0.04, "b": 0.12, "rho": -0.62, "m": 0.01, "sigma": 0.18 },
  "arb_free": true,
  "var_swap_strike": 17.9
}
Go deeper
Surfaces & SVI 5 articles
SVI & curve fitting: a modern IV surface Engineering arbitrage-free volatility surfaces Advanced volatility API: SVI, variance, arb detection Build, visualize and trade the IV surface SVI liquidity filtering: a real-data experiment
Risk premia 3 articles
Architectures for VRP harvesting Variance vs volatility risk premium Vol term structure: contango, backwardation, events
Measurement 1 article
Yang-Zhang vs close-to-close realized vol

Add it to your AI assistant

FlashAlpha ships a persona-scoped MCP connector tuned for this workflow. Add it to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client and ask in plain English — it exposes the same full FlashAlpha toolset, framed for this trading style.

OAuth (claude.ai web, Cursor)
https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp-oauth/volarb
apiKey (Claude Desktop, CLI)
https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp/volarb
Connect in 3 steps
  1. claude.ai (web/desktop): open Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, paste the OAuth URL above, click Add, then sign in (email/password or Google) and Allow.
  2. Cursor: click Add to Cursor below (OAuth completes in-browser, no key paste).
  3. Claude Desktop / CLI: use the apiKey URL with your FlashAlpha key, e.g. claude mcp add flashalpha-volarb --transport http https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp/volarb.

Need the full walkthrough with screenshots and troubleshooting? Read the step-by-step setup tutorial. No key yet? Grab a free one on the pricing page.

Add to Cursor Open Claude Connectors Setup tutorial All connectors

Live in three steps

1
Grab your API key

Sign up free, no card. Your key works on every endpoint instantly.

2
Call the endpoint

One GET request per ticker returns computed analytics, no rebuilding greeks or exposure yourself.

3
Wire it in

Drop it into your dashboard, model or backtest. Live and historical share one response shape.

Questions, answered

What does the advanced volatility endpoint return?

SVI surface parameters, the variance surface, arbitrage detection, higher-order greek surfaces and a variance-swap strike, the building blocks for relative-value vol trades.

Are the surfaces arbitrage-free?

Yes, fits are calendar- and butterfly-checked, and the response flags arbitrage so you don't trade off a bad surface.

What's the difference between variance and volatility risk premium?

Variance risk premium is priced on variance (squared vol), volatility risk premium on vol itself; they diverge in the tails, which the guide above explains and the data lets you trade.

Can I get historical surfaces for backtesting?

Yes, the surface and advanced-volatility endpoints replay historically, so dispersion and RV strategies can be backtested point-in-time.

Recommended plan
Alpha $1,199/mo

billed annually ($14,388/yr)

Alpha unlocks SVI surfaces, variance/var-swap analytics, VRP and the historical surface, the full relative-value toolkit.

Get Your API Key → or start free →
  • ✓  No card for the free tier
  • ✓  Cancel anytime
  • ✓  Same data live & historical
Compare all plans

Get your API key in 60 seconds.

Arbitrage-free SVI surfaces, variance versus volatility risk premium, per-strike term structure and arbitrage detection, computed and served, so you trade the dislocations instead of building the plumbing.

Get Your API Key Read the docs