IV Surface — Volatility by Expiry & Moneyness
How the market prices options across expiry and strike — implied volatility as a heatmap across time to expiry (DTE) and moneyness (strike/spot) per ticker. It makes contango/backwardation and the put/call skew visible in a single picture. Full option chain, daily.
Source: full US option chain (greeks/IV per contract) · ATM ↑/↓ skew along moneyness, contango/backwardation along expiry. IV per moneyness point interpolated from the strikes (OTM side). Daily. Not a trading signal.
How to read the surface
Horizontal (expiry): if the ATM column (moneyness 100%) gets warmer to the right, the market is in contango (calm market, longer options more expensive). If it gets warmer to the left, backwardation (acute stress). Vertical (moneyness): if the lower edge (85%, puts) is warmer than the upper (115%, calls), the market pays a premium for downside protection — the classic put skew of equity indices.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an IV surface?
The implied-volatility surface (IV surface) is a three-dimensional map of an underlying's implied volatility. One axis is the option's remaining time to expiry (in days to expiry, DTE), the other is moneyness — the strike relative to the current price (spot), i.e. 85 percent to 115 percent. Each cell shows the implied volatility the market charges for options with that expiry and strike. This makes term structure and skew visible in one picture.
What do contango and skew show in the surface?
Contango means implied volatility rises with expiry: short-dated options are cheaper than long-dated ones — typical of calm markets. From left to right (short to long expiry) the ATM column then gets warmer. Backwardation is the reverse (front more expensive than back), often during acute stress or ahead of a near-term event. Skew shows up along the moneyness axis: for equity indices, volatility at the lower edge (puts, 85 percent) is higher than at the top (calls, 115 percent) — the market pays a premium for downside protection (put skew).
How is the IV surface computed?
Once a day we load the full US option chain per core ticker (greeks and implied volatility per contract). For each target expiry we pick the nearest expiration series, and for each moneyness point we interpolate implied volatility linearly across the strikes — using the out-of-the-money side (puts below spot, calls above), because those contracts are more liquid. The result is a compact, smoothed surface for around a dozen liquid underlyings.
Is the IV surface a trading signal?
No. This page shows backward-looking options context — the current state of term structure and skew, not a forecast and not investment advice. A high or low implied volatility says nothing about future price direction. Options are leveraged instruments with a risk of total loss.