The Western Union Company (WU) 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.
The Western Union Company (WU) operates in the Financial Services sector, specifically the Financial - Credit Services industry, with a market capitalization near $2.64B, listed on NYSE, employing roughly 9,100 people, carrying a beta of 0.53 to the broader market. The Western Union Company provides money movement and payment services worldwide. Led by Devin McGranahan, public since 2006-10-02.
Snapshot as of May 15, 2026.
- Spot Price
- $8.34
- ATM IV
- 34.7%
- IV Skew 25Δ
- 0.601
- IV Rank
- 3.6%
- IV Percentile
- 45.2%
- Term Structure Slope
- -0.012
As of May 15, 2026, The Western Union Company (WU) at-the-money implied volatility is 34.7%. IV rank is 3.6% (where 0% is the 52-week low and 100% is the 52-week high). IV percentile is 45.2%. The 25-delta skew is +0.601: 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.
WU Strategy Selection at Current Volatility Levels
For The Western Union Company options at 34.7% ATM IV, low IV rank (3.6%) 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 →
WU highest implied-volatility contracts
| Type | Strike | Expiration | Volume | OI | IV | Bid | Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CALL | $10.00 | Jan 15, 2027 | 2.1K | 4.9K | 37.4% | $0.30 | $0.40 |
| CALL | $9.00 | Nov 20, 2026 | 502 | 287 | 35.2% | $0.40 | $0.50 |
| CALL | $9.00 | Aug 21, 2026 | 379 | 17.5K | 35.3% | $0.25 | $0.35 |
Top 3 contracts from the ORATS-sourced nightly scan; ranked by iv within the broader S&P 500/400/600 + ETF universe.
Frequently asked WU volatility skew questions
- What is the current WU ATM implied volatility?
- As of May 15, 2026, The Western Union Company (WU) at-the-money implied volatility is 34.7%. IV rank is 3.6% 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 WU 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 WU volatility skew tell options traders?
- Volatility skew is the pattern by which IV varies across strikes for a given expiration. The Western Union 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.