SPY near-the-money implied volatility by distance to expiration
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 2026-08-22, from Why VIX Options Don't Track the VIX.
| dte_band | iv_pct | contract_count |
|---|---|---|
| up to 1 week | 18.06 | 42251 |
| 1 to 3 weeks | 14.51 | 47164 |
| 3 to 6 weeks | 14.97 | 37078 |
| 6 weeks to 3 months | 15.46 | 25859 |
| 3 to 6 months | 16.67 | 17769 |
| over 6 months | 18.68 | 17210 |
- Rows × columns
- 6 × 3
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
dte_band |
text | 6 distinct values | |
iv_pct |
number | 14.51 to 18.68 | percent |
contract_count |
number | 17,210 to 47,164 | count |
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
SELECT
multiIf(days_to_expiry <= 7, 'up to 1 week',
days_to_expiry <= 21, '1 to 3 weeks',
days_to_expiry <= 45, '3 to 6 weeks',
days_to_expiry <= 90, '6 weeks to 3 months',
days_to_expiry <= 180, '3 to 6 months',
'over 6 months') AS dte_band,
round(avg(implied_volatility) * 100, 2) AS iv_pct,
count() AS contract_count
FROM global_markets.options_greeks
WHERE underlying_symbol = 'SPY'
AND iv_converged = 1
AND volume > 0
AND days_to_expiry BETWEEN 1 AND 730
AND abs(toFloat64(strike_price) / toFloat64(underlying_close) - 1) < 0.05
AND date >= today() - 120
GROUP BY dte_band
ORDER BY min(days_to_expiry)
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