Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) 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.
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) operates in the Communication Services sector, specifically the Entertainment industry, with a market capitalization near $68.32B, listed on NASDAQ, employing roughly 35,000 people, carrying a beta of 1.57 to the broader market. Warner Bros. Led by David Zaslav, public since 2005-07-08.
Snapshot as of May 15, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $26.98
- ATM IV
- 18.4%
- IV Skew 25Δ
- 0.249
- IV Rank
- 2.0%
- IV Percentile
- 9.5%
- Term Structure Slope
- -0.040
As of May 15, 2026, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) at-the-money implied volatility is 18.4%. IV rank is 2.0% (where 0% is the 52-week low and 100% is the 52-week high). IV percentile is 9.5%. The 25-delta skew is +0.249: 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.
WBD Strategy Selection at Current Volatility Levels
For Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. options at 18.4% ATM IV, low IV rank (2.0%) 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 →
WBD highest implied-volatility contracts
| Type | Strike | Expiration | Volume | OI | IV | Bid | Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PUT | $20.00 | Oct 16, 2026 | 0 | 226.9K | 46.2% | $0.42 | $0.55 |
| PUT | $25.00 | Oct 16, 2026 | 0 | 144.1K | 36.7% | $0.90 | $1.55 |
| PUT | $27.00 | Oct 16, 2026 | 10 | 126.0K | 30.9% | $1.74 | $2.05 |
| PUT | $21.00 | Sep 18, 2026 | 0 | 122.5K | 41.1% | $0.12 | $0.46 |
| CALL | $27.00 | Sep 18, 2026 | 5.0K | 277 | 30.0% | $1.87 | $2.20 |
| CALL | $28.00 | Jul 17, 2026 | 20.1K | 20.9K | 21.8% | $0.60 | $0.81 |
| CALL | $29.00 | Aug 21, 2026 | 10.4K | 67.0K | 23.5% | $0.65 | $0.76 |
| CALL | $28.00 | Aug 21, 2026 | 143 | 65.8K | 26.9% | $1.20 | $1.29 |
Top 8 contracts from the ORATS-sourced nightly scan; ranked by iv within the broader S&P 500/400/600 + ETF universe.
Frequently asked WBD volatility skew questions
- What is the current WBD ATM implied volatility?
- As of May 15, 2026, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) at-the-money implied volatility is 18.4%. IV rank is 2.0% 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 WBD 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 WBD volatility skew tell options traders?
- Volatility skew is the pattern by which IV varies across strikes for a given expiration. Warner Bros. Discovery, 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.