Mercury General Corporation (MCY) 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.
Mercury General Corporation (MCY) operates in the Financial Services sector, specifically the Insurance - Property & Casualty industry, with a market capitalization near $5.52B, listed on NYSE, employing roughly 4,200 people, carrying a beta of 0.94 to the broader market. Mercury General Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in writing personal automobile insurance in the United States. Led by Gabriel Tirador, public since 1985-11-20.
Snapshot as of May 15, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $98.35
- ATM IV
- 29.4%
- IV Skew 25Δ
- -0.038
- IV Rank
- 31.6%
- IV Percentile
- 25.0%
- Term Structure Slope
- 0.019
As of May 15, 2026, Mercury General Corporation (MCY) at-the-money implied volatility is 29.4%. IV rank is 31.6% (where 0% is the 52-week low and 100% is the 52-week high). IV percentile is 25.0%. The 25-delta skew is -0.038: 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.
MCY Strategy Selection at Current Volatility Levels
For Mercury General Corporation options at 29.4% ATM IV, mid-range IV rank (31.6%) is the regime where directional conviction matters more than vol-regime positioning; strategy choice should follow the event calendar and the dealer-positioning view rather than IV rank alone. 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 →
MCY highest implied-volatility contracts
| Type | Strike | Expiration | Volume | OI | IV | Bid | Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CALL | $100.00 | Jun 18, 2026 | 5 | 1.0K | 29.4% | $2.20 | $3.20 |
Top 1 contracts from the ORATS-sourced nightly scan; ranked by iv within the broader S&P 500/400/600 + ETF universe.
Frequently asked MCY volatility skew questions
- What is the current MCY ATM implied volatility?
- As of May 15, 2026, Mercury General Corporation (MCY) at-the-money implied volatility is 29.4%. IV rank is 31.6% 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 MCY IV high or low historically?
- IV is near its 1-year median, a regime where strategy choice depends on directional conviction and event calendar rather than vol regime.
- What does MCY volatility skew tell options traders?
- Volatility skew is the pattern by which IV varies across strikes for a given expiration. Mercury General Corporation 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.