Lithia Motors, Inc. (LAD) 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.
Lithia Motors, Inc. (LAD) operates in the Consumer Cyclical sector, specifically the Auto - Dealerships industry, with a market capitalization near $6.23B, listed on NYSE, employing roughly 30,000 people, carrying a beta of 1.28 to the broader market. Lithia Motors, Inc. Led by Bryan DeBoer, public since 1996-12-18.
Snapshot as of May 13, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $273.33
- ATM IV
- 36.3%
- IV Skew 25Δ
- 0.034
- IV Rank
- 23.3%
- IV Percentile
- 43.7%
- Term Structure Slope
- 0.010
As of May 13, 2026, Lithia Motors, Inc. (LAD) at-the-money implied volatility is 36.3%. IV rank is 23.3% (where 0% is the 52-week low and 100% is the 52-week high). IV percentile is 43.7%. The 25-delta skew is +0.034: 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.
LAD Strategy Selection at Current Volatility Levels
For Lithia Motors, Inc. options at 36.3% ATM IV, low IV rank (23.3%) 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 →
LAD highest implied-volatility contracts
| Type | Strike | Expiration | Volume | OI | IV | Bid | Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PUT | $260.00 | Dec 18, 2026 | 200 | 6.4K | 37.9% | $25.00 | $27.80 |
| PUT | $250.00 | Sep 18, 2026 | 0 | 2.0K | 37.1% | $13.80 | $16.10 |
Top 2 contracts from the ORATS-sourced nightly scan; ranked by iv within the broader S&P 500/400/600 + ETF universe.
Frequently asked LAD volatility skew questions
- What is the current LAD ATM implied volatility?
- As of May 13, 2026, Lithia Motors, Inc. (LAD) at-the-money implied volatility is 36.3%. IV rank is 23.3% 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 LAD 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 LAD volatility skew tell options traders?
- Volatility skew is the pattern by which IV varies across strikes for a given expiration. Lithia Motors, Inc. 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.