Implied vs realized volatility, six heavily traded US underlyings, twelve months to June 30, 2026
Answered against 22 years of US equities and 12 years of US options data and published with the query that produced it. This result is stored as of 2026-08-03, from Nikkei 225 Options and SQ Settlement.
| ticker | implied_vol_pct | realized_vol_pct | premium_pct |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDA | 40.1 | 35.4 | 4.7 |
| SPY | 15.2 | 12.5 | 2.7 |
| IWM | 22.1 | 19.6 | 2.5 |
| QQQ | 20.2 | 18.1 | 2.1 |
| AAPL | 25.4 | 23.6 | 1.8 |
| MSFT | 26.3 | 26.9 | -0.6 |
- Rows × columns
- 6 × 4
- Computed
- Completeness
- No missing values
- Source
- US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data
- Licence
- Strasmore terms · free, no signup
What each column holds
| Column | Type | Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
ticker |
text | 6 distinct values (AAPL, IWM, MSFT…) | |
implied_vol_pct |
number | 15.2 to 40.1 | percent |
realized_vol_pct |
number | 12.5 to 35.4 | percent |
premium_pct |
number | -0.6 to 4.7 | percent |
Computed from Strasmore's warehouse of US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data. Equity prices are delayed; options greeks and implied volatility are end-of-day. This result is stored, not recomputed on load — it is exactly the numbers that were returned on , and the query below is what returned them.
the exact SQL behind every number
WITH daily AS (
SELECT ticker,
toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) AS session_date,
argMax(close, window_start) AS session_close
FROM global_markets.delayed_stocks_minute_aggs
WHERE ticker IN ('SPY','QQQ','IWM','AAPL','MSFT','NVDA')
AND toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) >= toDate('2025-06-20')
AND toDate(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) <= toDate('2026-06-30')
AND (toHour(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York')) * 60
+ toMinute(toTimeZone(window_start, 'America/New_York'))) BETWEEN 570 AND 959
GROUP BY ticker, session_date
),
rets AS (
SELECT ticker,
session_date,
toFloat64(session_close) AS close_px,
any(toFloat64(session_close)) OVER (PARTITION BY ticker ORDER BY session_date ASC
ROWS BETWEEN 1 PRECEDING AND 1 PRECEDING) AS prior_close
FROM daily
),
realized AS (
SELECT ticker,
round(stddevSamp(close_px / prior_close - 1) * sqrt(252) * 100, 1) AS realized_vol_pct,
count() AS sessions
FROM rets
WHERE prior_close > 0
AND session_date >= toDate('2025-07-01')
GROUP BY ticker
),
implied AS (
SELECT underlying_symbol AS underlying,
round(quantileDeterministic(0.5)(toFloat64(implied_volatility) * 100, cityHash64(ticker)), 1) AS implied_vol_pct
FROM global_markets.options_greeks
WHERE underlying_symbol IN ('SPY','QQQ','IWM','AAPL','MSFT','NVDA')
AND date >= toDate('2025-07-01')
AND date <= toDate('2026-06-30')
AND iv_converged = 1
AND volume > 0
AND days_to_expiry BETWEEN 20 AND 45
AND abs(toFloat64(strike_price) / toFloat64(underlying_close) - 1) < 0.05
GROUP BY underlying
)
SELECT i.underlying AS ticker,
i.implied_vol_pct AS implied_vol_pct,
r.realized_vol_pct AS realized_vol_pct,
round(i.implied_vol_pct - r.realized_vol_pct, 1) AS premium_pct
FROM implied AS i
INNER JOIN realized AS r ON i.underlying = r.ticker
WHERE r.sessions >= 200
ORDER BY premium_pct DESC
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