Highest implied volatility
QQQ carried the most expensive at-the-money implied volatility in the tracked list at the September 16, 2026 snapshot, at 18%, ahead of QCOM at 49%. Implied volatility is what the market is charging for uncertainty over the next month. It is a price, not a prediction, and selling it is only an edge when it is expensive relative to what the stock actually does.
| Ticker | Price | ATM IV | IV rank | Best annualized | Earnings in window |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QQQInvesco QQQ Trust | $709.58 | 18% | 79% | 14.9% | no |
| QCOMQualcomm Inc. | $188.57 | 49% | 76% | 32.1% | no |
| INTCIntel Corporation | $101.71 | 61% | not yet | 65.7% | yes |
| SPYSPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | $759.04 | 13% | 60% | 9.4% | no |
| HDThe Home Depot | $307.33 | 26% | 59% | 17.6% | no |
| MUMicron Technology | $933.70 | 59% | not yet | 40.7% | yes |
| SOFISoFi Technologies | $16.91 | 49% | not yet | 44.4% | yes |
| NKENike Inc. | $36.39 | 46% | not yet | 31.3% | yes |
| DALDelta Air Lines | $78.47 | 46% | not yet | 23.3% | yes |
| FCXFreeport-McMoRan | $69.63 | 45% | not yet | 34.2% | yes |
| TSLATesla Inc. | $363.31 | 42% | not yet | 58.4% | yes |
| UNHUnitedHealth Group | $379.19 | 38% | not yet | 20.2% | yes |
| METAMeta Platforms | $678.91 | 38% | not yet | 36.6% | yes |
| SLBSLB (Schlumberger) | $53.21 | 38% | not yet | 27.4% | yes |
| CATCaterpillar Inc. | $784.18 | 37% | not yet | 22.2% | yes |
| GSGoldman Sachs Group | $970.95 | 36% | not yet | 22.1% | yes |
| NVDANVIDIA Corporation | $214.95 | 33% | 35% | 31.7% | no |
| OXYOccidental Petroleum | $60.62 | 35% | not yet | 21.4% | no |
| IBMInternational Business Machines | $240.94 | 34% | not yet | 21.3% | yes |
| FFord Motor Company | $13.39 | 34% | not yet | 13.6% | yes |
| LLYEli Lilly and Company | $1,143 | 34% | not yet | 17.8% | yes |
| AMDAdvanced Micro Devices | $525.67 | 51% | 33% | 61.5% | no |
| CRMSalesforce Inc. | $253.17 | 41% | 33% | 22.0% | no |
| NFLXNetflix Inc. | $77.36 | 33% | not yet | 24.1% | yes |
| GEGE Aerospace | $313.99 | 33% | not yet | 33.3% | yes |
About the IV rank column
14 of the tracked names have enough accrued history to compute an IV rank; the rest show "not yet" rather than a fabricated number. Where a rank exists it drives the ordering, because 40% IV on a stock that normally runs at 25% is a very different trade from 40% on one that normally runs at 60%.
The trap on this page
Every list of high-IV names is a list of stocks the market is nervous about. Sell puts across the top ten and you have not built a diversified premium book, you have built a concentrated bet that nothing bad happens to any of ten companies the market thinks something bad might happen to. That works for a while. It works right up until the week it does not, and that week takes back a year.
The useful comparison is implied against realized: is the option pricing in more movement than the stock has actually been delivering? When implied vol is cheap against realized, a seller is being underpaid for the risk, and no amount of a high headline IV number fixes that.