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IV Rank

where current implied volatility sits within its trailing 52-week range

IV Rank is a 0-to-100 number that locates current at-the-money implied volatility within the trailing 52-week IV range. IV Rank of 75 means current IV is in the upper quarter of the past year.

In short
  • Range-based, not percentile-based. IV Rank uses the highest and lowest IV prints over the lookback; IV Percentile counts the share of days below current.
  • Standard lookback is 52 weeks (252 trading sessions). Some platforms use 30 or 90 days.
  • High IV Rank suggests options are expensive in their own historical context; low IV Rank suggests they are cheap. It is not directional.
How its calculated

How is IV Rank calculated?

IV_Rank = 100 * (IV_today - IV_min_52wk) / (IV_max_52wk - IV_min_52wk)

IV_today is at-the-money implied volatility for the front-month or 30-day surface.
IV_min_52wk and IV_max_52wk are the daily lows and highs over the trailing 52 weeks.

The simplest one-number summary of "is volatility expensive right now relative to itself." A reading of 100 means current IV is the year's high; 0 means it is the year's low. Compare to IV Percentile, which counts the percentage of trailing sessions with IV below today's reading; the two metrics agree in regime but diverge near the extremes.

What traders use it for

What do traders use IV Rank for?

  • Premium-selling vs premium-buying decisions. High IV Rank favors short premium (sell vol). Low IV Rank favors long premium (buy vol). The directional bet is independent.
  • Pre-earnings vol-crush sizing. IV Rank above 80 ahead of earnings tells you the implied move is rich; pricing-in is already priced.
  • Cross-name vol-screening. Sort the universe by IV Rank to find candidates for vol-mean-reversion trades.
Worked example

Worked example

Worked example: $NVDA
IV Rank on $NVDA into earnings

Suppose NVDA 30-day at-the-money IV prints 48.2%. The 52-week IV range is 32.1% (low) to 64.7% (high). IV Rank = 100 * (48.2 - 32.1) / (64.7 - 32.1) = 100 * 16.1 / 32.6 = 49.4. As of 2026-05-02 16:00 ET. An IV Rank near 50 ahead of an event means the market has not yet pulled vol to the year's highs; some premium-buying is still priced cheaply relative to the year.

Live data: /stock/NVDA.

Common pitfalls

What are common pitfalls of IV Rank?

  • Range-based metrics get distorted by one extreme print. A single VIX-spike day a year ago can compress IV Rank for the next 252 sessions.
  • IV Rank is not directional. A name with IV Rank 95 can still go up or down; the metric only says vol is rich.
  • Different platforms use different surface conventions. Tapeboard uses 30-day at-the-money implied vol; some tools use front-month or use the full surface average.
  • Low-volume names have unstable IV. A thinly-traded option chain can show IV Rank swings from re-quoting noise; cross-check with chain volume before trading on it.
Where it appears on Tapeboard

Where this metric appears on Tapeboard

IV Rank renders on every `/stock/{T}/options` page, on /scanner as a sortable column, and as a default filter in the "vol-screener" preset.

Tapeboard surfaces this metric as a first-class screening filter. See the comparison pages at all Bloomberg alternatives for how Tapeboard's iv rank surface compares against Koyfin, Finviz, TradingView, and Unusual Whales.

Related TERMS

Related terms

  • Gamma Exposure (GEX): Aggregate dealer-position gamma across an option chain. Positive GEX implies dealers buy dips and sell rips (volatility-suppressive); negative GEX implies the reverse (volatility-amplifying).
  • Gamma Ramp: Plot of GEX (y-axis) vs hypothetical spot prices (x-axis). The zero-crossing is the "gamma flip" level.
  • Options Flow: OPRA is the consolidated US options price-reporting authority; every executed options trade reports to OPRA in real time.
Primary sources

Primary sources cited

Page review

Methodology last reviewed 2026-05-04 by Marcus Reilly, Editor at Tapeboard. Every claim on this page has a row in the citation registry. Glossary terms reverify on the Jan 15 / Apr 15 / Jul 15 / Oct 15 cron and any time the underlying primary-source publishes a methodology change. See methodology for the full fact-check process and corrections for the public correction log.

Disclaimer. This page is for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing on Tapeboard is investment advice. See the full risk disclaimer.