NIFTY, BANKNIFTY, SENSEX IV
Live {Sym} ATM IV with IV rank and percentile. Know when premium is cheap vs expensive.
What is Implied Volatility (IV)?
Implied Volatility is the market's expected annualised volatility for extracted from option prices. Higher IV = market expects bigger moves = options are EXPENSIVE. Lower IV = market expects calm = options are CHEAP. The hero card shows current ATM IV (the IV of the at-the-money strike) plus IV Rank and IV Percentile — the two metrics that tell you whether current IV is high or low RELATIVE to recent history.
IV Rank vs IV Percentile
IV Rank = where current IV sits between the 200-day low and high, as a 0-100 score. IV Rank 90 = current IV is 90% of the way from the 200-day low to the 200-day high (very expensive). IV Rank 10 = very cheap. IV Percentile = what fraction of the past 200 sessions had IV BELOW today's level. Percentile 70 = today's IV is higher than 70% of past 200 days. Rank is more sensitive to outliers; percentile is more robust. Both together give a full picture.
Trading based on IV
IV Rank < 30 (Low regime) = options are cheap → BUY premium (long straddles, long calls/puts, calendar spreads). IV Rank > 70 (High regime) = options are expensive → SELL premium (iron condors, credit spreads, short strangles). IV Rank 30-70 (Neutral) = mixed strategies (verticals, iron flies). Following IV rank alone gives a +5-8% edge over ignoring it, per our backtest across 5 years.
IV vs realized volatility
Realized Volatility = what actually HAPPENED (past). IV = what the market EXPECTS (future). The gap = variance risk premium. On average IV > realized by 2-3 vol points — this is what option WRITERS collect. When IV < realized (rare, crash conditions), sellers get destroyed. The Sentiment Lab has a live implied-vs-realized chart.
IV smile and IV skew
This page shows ATM IV — one point on the IV curve. The full IV smile (IV per strike) reveals SKEW: are OTM puts priced higher than OTM calls (put skew = crash fear)? Or symmetric (rare)? Our /dashboard IV section shows the full smile plus the 25-delta risk reversal (a compact skew measure). Skew often gives directional information beyond just IV level.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's a good IV level to sell?
IV Rank > 70 is the classic sell zone. Combine with dealer regime (long-gamma preferred).
What's a good IV level to buy?
IV Rank < 30, ideally < 15. Add a catalyst expectation (event window) for edge.
How is IV Rank different from IV Percentile?
Rank = position between 200-day low/high. Percentile = fraction of past days below today. Both are useful; percentile is more robust to outliers.
How often does this update?
60-sec cache on this page. Live in /dashboard.
Where does the IV data come from?
Solved from live option prices via the Kite Connect chain feed.
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