Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. (ARQT) 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.
Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. (ARQT) operates in the Healthcare sector, specifically the Biotechnology industry, with a market capitalization near $2.71B, listed on NASDAQ, employing roughly 342 people, carrying a beta of 1.59 to the broader market. Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. Led by Todd Franklin Watanabe, public since 2020-01-31.
Snapshot as of May 15, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $21.48
- ATM IV
- 53.6%
- IV Skew 25Δ
- -0.034
- IV Rank
- 18.8%
- IV Percentile
- 21.4%
- Term Structure Slope
- 0.167
As of May 15, 2026, Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. (ARQT) at-the-money implied volatility is 53.6%. IV rank is 18.8% (where 0% is the 52-week low and 100% is the 52-week high). IV percentile is 21.4%. The 25-delta skew is -0.034: puts carry meaningful premium over calls, a classic equity downside-protection skew. High IV rank typically favors premium-selling strategies; low IV rank favors premium-buying.
ARQT Strategy Selection at Current Volatility Levels
For Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. options at 53.6% ATM IV, low IV rank (18.8%) 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 is meaningfully put-skewed, so put-credit spreads capture more premium for the same width than call-credit spreads. 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 ARQT volatility skew questions
- What is the current ARQT ATM implied volatility?
- As of May 15, 2026, Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. (ARQT) at-the-money implied volatility is 53.6%. IV rank is 18.8% 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 ARQT 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 ARQT volatility skew tell options traders?
- Volatility skew is the pattern by which IV varies across strikes for a given expiration. Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. carries the typical equity downside-protection skew: 25-delta puts price meaningfully richer than 25-delta calls. 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.