Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF) 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.
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF) operates in the Basic Materials sector, specifically the Steel industry, with a market capitalization near $6.27B, listed on NYSE, employing roughly 30,000 people, carrying a beta of 2.01 to the broader market. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. Led by C. Lourenco Goncalves, public since 1987-11-05.
Snapshot as of May 15, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $10.27
- ATM IV
- 63.5%
- IV Skew 25Δ
- 0.010
- IV Rank
- 26.4%
- IV Percentile
- 29.0%
- Term Structure Slope
- 0.012
As of May 15, 2026, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF) at-the-money implied volatility is 63.5%. IV rank is 26.4% (where 0% is the 52-week low and 100% is the 52-week high). IV percentile is 29.0%. The 25-delta skew is +0.010: skew is roughly flat across the 25-delta wings. High IV rank typically favors premium-selling strategies; low IV rank favors premium-buying.
CLF Strategy Selection at Current Volatility Levels
For Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. options at 63.5% ATM IV, low IV rank (26.4%) 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 →
CLF highest implied-volatility contracts
| Type | Strike | Expiration | Volume | OI | IV | Bid | Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PUT | $11.00 | May 29, 2026 | 717 | 113 | 58.5% | $0.86 | $0.97 |
| CALL | $10.00 | Jun 18, 2026 | 4.5K | 18.5K | 64.2% | $0.94 | $0.99 |
| CALL | $22.00 | Jan 15, 2027 | 8 | 24.1K | 67.4% | $0.34 | $0.36 |
| CALL | $11.00 | May 22, 2026 | 1.8K | 2.1K | 60.1% | $0.11 | $0.12 |
| CALL | $12.00 | Jun 18, 2026 | 647 | 21.0K | 64.1% | $0.27 | $0.29 |
| CALL | $10.00 | Jun 18, 2026 | 4.5K | 18.5K | 64.2% | $0.94 | $0.99 |
| PUT | $10.50 | May 22, 2026 | 681 | 408 | 58.5% | $0.41 | $0.48 |
| CALL | $11.00 | Jun 18, 2026 | 1.4K | 15.7K | 63.2% | $0.51 | $0.54 |
| CALL | $13.00 | Jun 18, 2026 | 88 | 17.1K | 65.8% | $0.14 | $0.17 |
| PUT | $11.00 | May 22, 2026 | 624 | 419 | 60.1% | $0.77 | $0.84 |
Top 10 contracts from the ORATS-sourced nightly scan; ranked by iv within the broader S&P 500/400/600 + ETF universe.
Frequently asked CLF volatility skew questions
- What is the current CLF ATM implied volatility?
- As of May 15, 2026, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (CLF) at-the-money implied volatility is 63.5%. IV rank is 26.4% 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 CLF 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 CLF volatility skew tell options traders?
- Volatility skew is the pattern by which IV varies across strikes for a given expiration. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. 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.