STAAR Surgical Company (STAA) 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.
STAAR Surgical Company (STAA) operates in the Healthcare sector, specifically the Medical - Instruments & Supplies industry, with a market capitalization near $1.46B, listed on NASDAQ, employing roughly 1,157 people, carrying a beta of 1.20 to the broader market. STAAR Surgical Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells implantable lenses for the eye, and companion delivery systems to deliver the lenses into the eye. Led by Warren Foust, public since 1992-02-24.
Snapshot as of May 15, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $32.44
- ATM IV
- 47.4%
- IV Skew 25Δ
- 0.055
- IV Rank
- 27.8%
- IV Percentile
- 21.8%
- Term Structure Slope
- 0.018
As of May 15, 2026, STAAR Surgical Company (STAA) at-the-money implied volatility is 47.4%. IV rank is 27.8% (where 0% is the 52-week low and 100% is the 52-week high). IV percentile is 21.8%. The 25-delta skew is +0.055: 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.
STAA Strategy Selection at Current Volatility Levels
For STAAR Surgical Company options at 47.4% ATM IV, low IV rank (27.8%) 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 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 →
STAA highest implied-volatility contracts
| Type | Strike | Expiration | Volume | OI | IV | Bid | Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CALL | $40.00 | Sep 18, 2026 | 315 | 139 | 55.2% | $1.35 | $2.20 |
Top 1 contracts from the ORATS-sourced nightly scan; ranked by iv within the broader S&P 500/400/600 + ETF universe.
Frequently asked STAA volatility skew questions
- What is the current STAA ATM implied volatility?
- As of May 15, 2026, STAAR Surgical Company (STAA) at-the-money implied volatility is 47.4%. IV rank is 27.8% 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 STAA 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 STAA volatility skew tell options traders?
- Volatility skew is the pattern by which IV varies across strikes for a given expiration. STAAR Surgical Company 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.