United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) 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.
United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) operates in the Industrials sector, specifically the Integrated Freight & Logistics industry, with a market capitalization near $83.67B, listed on NYSE, employing roughly 241,250 people, carrying a beta of 1.05 to the broader market. United Parcel Service, Inc. Led by Carol Tome, public since 1999-11-10.
Snapshot as of May 15, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $99.00
- ATM IV
- 27.1%
- IV Skew 25Δ
- 0.040
- IV Rank
- 21.0%
- IV Percentile
- 34.9%
- Term Structure Slope
- -0.017
As of May 15, 2026, United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) at-the-money implied volatility is 27.1%. IV rank is 21.0% (where 0% is the 52-week low and 100% is the 52-week high). IV percentile is 34.9%. The 25-delta skew is +0.040: 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.
UPS Strategy Selection at Current Volatility Levels
For United Parcel Service, Inc. options at 27.1% ATM IV, low IV rank (21.0%) 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 →
UPS highest implied-volatility contracts
| Type | Strike | Expiration | Volume | OI | IV | Bid | Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CALL | $65.00 | Jan 15, 2027 | 1.6K | 132 | 35.4% | $33.40 | $35.45 |
| CALL | $60.00 | Jan 15, 2027 | 1.6K | 138 | 35.4% | $37.15 | $39.60 |
Top 2 contracts from the ORATS-sourced nightly scan; ranked by iv within the broader S&P 500/400/600 + ETF universe.
Frequently asked UPS volatility skew questions
- What is the current UPS ATM implied volatility?
- As of May 15, 2026, United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) at-the-money implied volatility is 27.1%. IV rank is 21.0% 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 UPS 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 UPS volatility skew tell options traders?
- Volatility skew is the pattern by which IV varies across strikes for a given expiration. United Parcel Service, 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.