Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bearish Fund (UDN) Volatility Skew
Implied volatility skew shows how IV varies across strike prices for a given expiration. Steeper skews indicate higher demand for downside protection relative to upside speculation.
Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bearish Fund (UDN) operates in the Financial Services sector, specifically the Asset Management - Leveraged industry, with a market capitalization near $135.4M, listed on AMEX, carrying a beta of 0.22 to the broader market. The Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bearish (Fund) seeks to track changes, whether positive or negative, in the level of the Deutsche Bank Short USD Currency Portfolio Index - Excess Return (DB Short USD Currency Portfolio Index ER or Index) plus the interest income from the Fund's holdings of primarily US Treasury securities and money market income less the Fund's expenses. public since 2007-03-01.
Snapshot as of May 15, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $18.16
- ATM IV
- 6.1%
- IV Skew 25Δ
- 0.029
- IV Rank
- 1.0%
- IV Percentile
- 9.9%
- Term Structure Slope
- 0.006
As of May 15, 2026, Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bearish Fund (UDN) at-the-money implied volatility is 6.1%. IV rank is 1.0% (where 0% is the 52-week low and 100% is the 52-week high). IV percentile is 9.9%. The 25-delta skew is +0.029: calls carry premium over puts, indicating upside speculation or squeeze risk. High IV rank typically favors premium-selling strategies; low IV rank favors premium-buying.
UDN Strategy Selection at Current Volatility Levels
For Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bearish Fund options at 6.1% ATM IV, low IV rank (1.0%) favors premium-buying or long-vol structures: long calls or puts, debit spreads, calendar spreads, long straddles. The risk: low-rank regimes can persist for months while time decay eats premium-buyers alive. The 25-delta skew tilts to calls, so call-credit spreads or covered-call writes harvest more premium than put-credit spreads of the same width. Pair the vol-rank read with the dealer-gamma view and the upcoming-events calendar to confirm the strategy fits both the structural regime and the path-dependent risk. The variance risk premium - the persistent gap between implied and subsequently realized vol - is positive in equity markets on average; high IV rank typically reflects a stretch where the premium is wider than usual.
Learn how volatility skew is reported and how to read the data →
Frequently asked UDN volatility skew questions
- What is the current UDN ATM implied volatility?
- As of May 15, 2026, Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bearish Fund (UDN) at-the-money implied volatility is 6.1%. IV rank is 1.0% on a 0-100% scale anchored to the 1-year IV range. ATM IV is the volatility input that makes a Black-Scholes-equivalent model reproduce the listed at-the-money option prices.
- Is UDN IV high or low historically?
- IV is subdued relative to its 1-year history, conditions that typically favor premium-buying strategies (long calls, long puts, debit spreads, calendar spreads).
- What does UDN volatility skew tell options traders?
- Volatility skew is the pattern by which IV varies across strikes for a given expiration. Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bearish Fund shows upside-skewed pricing: 25-delta calls trade richer than 25-delta puts, often reflecting upside speculation or squeeze risk. Skew matters for risk-defined strategy selection: when downside puts are rich, put-credit spreads capture more premium; when upside calls are rich, call-credit spreads or covered-call writes harvest more.