Highest implied volatility
UNH carried the most expensive at-the-money implied volatility in the tracked list at the September 30, 2026 snapshot, at 40%, ahead of BA at 35%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNHUnitedHealth Group | $367.85 | 40% | 100% | 29.8% | yes |
| BAThe Boeing Company | $188.85 | 35% | 83% | 21.1% | yes |
| GOOGLAlphabet Inc. Class A | $349.48 | 38% | 82% | 33.7% | yes |
| MUMicron Technology | $1,080 | 60% | not yet | 73.8% | yes |
| QQQInvesco QQQ Trust | $743.16 | 18% | 60% | 15.8% | no |
| TSLATesla Inc. | $351.03 | 45% | 56% | 64.5% | yes |
| KOThe Coca-Cola Company | $87.11 | 21% | 55% | 11.7% | yes |
| INTCIntel Corporation | $118.67 | 73% | 54% | 65.2% | yes |
| XOMExxon Mobil | $162.92 | 30% | 52% | 12.6% | yes |
| AMDAdvanced Micro Devices | $613.57 | 51% | not yet | 58.9% | yes |
| NKENike Inc. | $35.78 | 50% | not yet | 49.3% | yes |
| FCXFreeport-McMoRan | $72.19 | 47% | not yet | 51.1% | yes |
| CATCaterpillar Inc. | $813.95 | 46% | not yet | none | yes |
| PLTRPalantir Technologies | $189.25 | 45% | not yet | 27.8% | yes |
| IBMInternational Business Machines | $220.45 | 45% | not yet | 25.9% | yes |
| NFLXNetflix Inc. | $72.16 | 44% | not yet | 24.7% | yes |
| CRMSalesforce Inc. | $232.14 | 43% | not yet | 28.2% | no |
| BACBank of America | $54.84 | 28% | 42% | 17.1% | yes |
| SOFISoFi Technologies | $15.98 | 54% | 42% | 36.8% | yes |
| METAMeta Platforms | $726.14 | 46% | 42% | 27.8% | yes |
| LLYEli Lilly and Company | $1,187 | 42% | not yet | none | yes |
| DALDelta Air Lines | $83.44 | 40% | not yet | none | yes |
| GMGeneral Motors | $79.14 | 40% | not yet | none | yes |
| FFord Motor Company | $12.25 | 39% | not yet | 22.0% | yes |
| AAPLApple Inc. | $338.29 | 25% | 39% | 41.5% | yes |
About the IV rank column
22 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.