How to Pick an Option Strike Price by Delta
Median premium collected per delta band, as a percent of the share priceranking ·
2026-09-27 · 9×4
Implied versus realized in the money share by the contract's own implied volatilitytable ·
2026-09-27 · 7×5
The 15 to 25 delta band at three horizons: implied versus realized in the money sharetable ·
2026-09-27 · 3×5
Delta band versus the share of contracts that finished in the money, 30 days outtable ·
2026-09-27 · 9×5
Median premium collected per delta band, as a percent of the share price
Median premium collected per delta band, as a percent of the share price
| delta_band | call_premium_pct | put_premium_pct | contract_count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 to 10 | 0.21 | 0.26 | 7543 |
| 10 to 15 | 0.38 | 0.45 | 4875 |
| 15 to 20 | 0.57 | 0.64 | 3829 |
| 20 to 25 | 0.78 | 0.89 | 3248 |
| 25 to 30 | 0.98 | 1.12 | 2865 |
| 30 to 35 | 1.25 | 1.4 | 2688 |
| 35 to 40 | 1.49 | 1.7 | 2531 |
| 40 to 45 | 1.84 | 2.05 | 2447 |
| 45 to 50 | 2.13 | 2.43 | 2394 |
the exact SQL behind every number
WITH
snaps AS
(
SELECT
ticker AS contract,
any(if(upper(substring(toString(option_type), 1, 1)) = 'C', 'call', 'put')) AS opt,
argMin(abs(delta), abs(toInt32(days_to_expiry) - 30)) AS abs_delta,
argMin(100 * toFloat64(option_close) / toFloat64(underlying_close),
abs(toInt32(days_to_expiry) - 30)) AS premium_pct
FROM global_markets.options_greeks
WHERE date >= '2024-01-01'
AND date < '2026-09-01'
AND days_to_expiry BETWEEN 27 AND 33
AND delta != 0
AND volume > 0
AND option_close > 0
AND underlying_close > 0
AND toDate(expiration_date) < '2026-09-01'
AND underlying_symbol IN ('AAPL', 'MSFT', 'NVDA', 'AMZN', 'SPY', 'KO', 'JPM', 'XOM')
GROUP BY contract
HAVING abs_delta >= 0.05 AND abs_delta < 0.50
),
banded AS
(
SELECT
toUInt16(floor(abs_delta * 20)) AS band,
contract,
opt,
premium_pct
FROM snaps
)
SELECT
concat(toString(band * 5), ' to ', toString(band * 5 + 5)) AS delta_band,
round(quantileDeterministicIf(0.5)(premium_pct, cityHash64(contract), opt = 'call'), 2) AS call_premium_pct,
round(quantileDeterministicIf(0.5)(premium_pct, cityHash64(contract), opt = 'put'), 2) AS put_premium_pct,
count() AS contract_count
FROM banded
GROUP BY band
HAVING countIf(opt = 'call') > 0 AND countIf(opt = 'put') > 0
ORDER BY band
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table 9×5
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Implied versus realized in the money share by the contract's own implied volatility
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