NIFTY Implied Volatility (IV) — Live
ATM IV with 200-sample IV rank and percentile for actionable premium-selling / premium-buying decisions.
What is Implied Volatility (IV)?
Implied Volatility is the market's expected annualised volatility for NIFTY 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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