United States Commodity Index Fund (USCI) 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.
United States Commodity Index Fund (USCI) operates in the Financial Services sector, specifically the Asset Management industry, with a market capitalization near $378.4M, listed on AMEX, carrying a beta of 0.88 to the broader market. The fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing to the fullest extent possible in the Benchmark Component Futures Contracts. public since 2010-08-10.
Snapshot as of May 15, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $101.13
- ATM IV
- 31.9%
- IV Skew 25Δ
- -0.006
- IV Rank
- 27.9%
- IV Percentile
- 82.9%
- Term Structure Slope
- 0.001
As of May 15, 2026, United States Commodity Index Fund (USCI) at-the-money implied volatility is 31.9%. IV rank is 27.9% (where 0% is the 52-week low and 100% is the 52-week high). IV percentile is 82.9%. The 25-delta skew is -0.006: skew is roughly flat across the 25-delta wings. High IV rank typically favors premium-selling strategies; low IV rank favors premium-buying.
USCI Strategy Selection at Current Volatility Levels
For United States Commodity Index Fund options at 31.9% ATM IV, low IV rank (27.9%) 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. 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 USCI volatility skew questions
- What is the current USCI ATM implied volatility?
- As of May 15, 2026, United States Commodity Index Fund (USCI) at-the-money implied volatility is 31.9%. IV rank is 27.9% 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 USCI 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 USCI volatility skew tell options traders?
- Volatility skew is the pattern by which IV varies across strikes for a given expiration. United States Commodity Index Fund skew is roughly flat across the 25-delta wings. 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.