19.1 – Volatility Types

The last few chapters have laid a foundation of sorts to help us understand Volatility better. We now know what it means, how to calculate the same, and use the volatility information for building trading strategies. It is now time to steer back to the main topic – Option Greek and in particular the 4th Option Greek “Vega”. Before we start digging deeper into Vega, we have to discuss one important topic – Quentin Tarantino ☺.

I’m huge fan of Quentin Tarantino and his movies. For people not familiar with Quentin Tarantino let me tell you, he is one of the most talented directors in Hollywood. He is the man behind super cult flicks such as Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, Django Unchained etc. If you’ve not watched his movies, I’d suggest you do, you may just love these movies as much as I do.

It is a known fact that when Quentin Tarantino directs a movie, he keeps all the production details under wraps until the movies trailer hits the market. Only after the trailer is out people get to know the name of movie, star cast details, brief story line, movie location etc. However, this is not the case with the movie he is directing these days, titled “The Hateful Eight”, due to be released in December 2015. Somehow everything about ‘The Hateful Eight’ – the star cast, storyline, location etc is leaked, hence people already know what to expect from Tarantino. Now given that most of the information about the movie is already known, there are wild speculations about the box office success of his upcoming movie.

We could do some analysis on this –

  1. Past movies – We know almost all of Tarantino’s previous movies were successful. Based on his past directorial performance we can be reasonably certain that ‘The Hateful Eight’ is likely to be a box office hit
  2. Movie Analyst’s forecast – There are these professional Hollywood movie analysts, who understand the business of cinema very well. Some of these analysts are forecasting that ‘The Hateful Eight’ may not do well (unlike his previous flicks) as most of the details pertaining to the movie is already, failing to enthuse the audience
  3. Social Media – If you look at the discussions on ‘The Hateful Eight’ on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, you’d realize that a lot of people are indeed excited about the movie, despite knowing what to expect from the movie. Going by the reactions on Social Media, ‘The Hateful Eight’ is likely to be a hit.
  4. The actual outcome – Irrespective of what really is being expected, once the movie is released we would know if the movie is a hit or a flop. Of course this is the final verdict for which we have to wait till the movie is released.

Tracking the eventual fate of the movie is not really our concern, although I’m certainly going to watch the movie ☺.

Given this, you may be wondering why we are even discussing Quentin Tarantino in a chapter concerning Options and Volatility! Well this is just my attempt (hopefully not lame) to explain the different types of volatility that exist – Historical Volatility, Forecasted Volatility, and Implied Volatility. So let’s get going.

Historical Volatility is similar to us judging the box office success of ‘The Hateful Eight’ based on Tarantino’s past directorial ventures. In the stock market world, we take the past closing prices of the stock/index and calculate the historical volatility. Do recall, we discussed the technique of calculating the historical volatility in Chapter 16. Historical volatility is very easy to calculate and helps us with most of the day to day requirements – for instance historical volatility can ‘somewhat’ be used in the options calculator to get a ‘quick and dirty’ option price (more on this in the subsequent chapters).

Forecasted Volatility is similar to the movie analyst attempting to forecast the fate of ‘The Hateful Eight’. In the stock market world, analysts forecast the volatility. Forecasting the volatility refers to the act of predicting the volatility over the desired time frame.

However, why would you need to predict the volatility? Well, there are many option strategies, the profitability of which solely depends on your expectation of volatility. If you have a view of volatility – for example you expect volatility to increase by 12.34% over the next 7 trading sessions, then you can set up option strategies which can profit this view, provided the view is right.

Also, at this stage you should realize – to make money in the stock markets it is NOT necessary to have a view on the direction on the markets. The view can be on volatility as well. Most of the professional options traders trade based on volatility and not really the market direction. I have to mention this – many traders find forecasting volatility is far more efficient than forecasting market direction.

Now clearly having a mathematical/statistical model to predict volatility is much better than arbitrarily declaring “I think the volatility is going to shoot up”. There are a few good statistical models such as ‘Generalized AutoRegressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) Process’. I know it sounds spooky, but that’s what it’s called. There are several GARCH processes to forecast volatility, if you are venturing into this arena, I can straightaway tell you that GARCH (1,1) or GARCH (1,2) are better suited processes for forecasting volatility.

Implied Volatility (IV) is like the people’s perception on social media. It does not matter what the historical data suggests or what the movie analyst is forecasting about ‘The Hateful Eight’. People seem to be excited about the movie, and that is an indicator of how the movie is likely to fare. Likewise the implied volatility represents the market participant’s expectation on volatility. So on one hand we have the historical and forecasted volatility, both of which are sort of ‘manufactured’ while on the other hand we have implied volatility which is in a sense ‘consensual’. Implied volatility can be thought of as consensus volatility arrived amongst all the market participants with respect to the expected amount of underlying price fluctuation over the remaining life of an option. Implied volatility is reflected in the price of the premium.

For this reason amongst the three different types of volatility, the IV is usually more valued.

You may have heard or noticed India VIX on NSE website, India VIX is the official ‘Implied Volatility’ index that one can track. India VIX is computed based on a mathematical formula, here is a whitepaper which explains how India VIX is calculated –

If you find the computation a bit overwhelming, then here is a quick wrap on what you need to know about India VIX (I have reproduced some of these points from the NSE’s whitepaper) –

  1. NSE computes India VIX based on the order book of Nifty Options
  2. The best bid-ask rates for near month and next-month Nifty options contracts are used for computation of India VIX
  3. India VIX indicates the investor’s perception of the market’s volatility in the near term (next 30 calendar days)
  4. Higher the India VIX values, higher the expected volatility and vice-versa
  5. When the markets are highly volatile, market tends to move steeply and during such time the volatility index tends to rise
  6. Volatility index declines when the markets become less volatile. Volatility indices such as India VIX are sometimes also referred to as the ‘Fear Index’, because as the volatility index rises, one should become careful, as the markets can move steeply into any direction. Investors use volatility indices to gauge the market volatility and make their investment decisions
  7. Volatility Index is different from a market index like NIFTY. NIFTY measures the direction of the market and is computed using the price movement of the underlying stocks whereas India VIX measures the expected volatility and is computed using the order book of the underlying NIFTY options. While Nifty is a number, India VIX is denoted as an annualized percentage

Further, NSE publishes the implied volatility for various strike prices for all the options that get traded. You can track these implied volatilities by checking the option chain. For example here is the option chain of Cipla, with all the IV’s marked out.

Image 1_IV

The Implied Volatilities can be calculated using a standard options calculator. We will discuss more about calculating IV, and using IV for setting up trades in the subsequent chapters. For now we will now move over to understand Vega.

Realized Volatility is pretty much similar to the eventual outcome of the movie, which we would get to know only after the movie is released. Likewise the realized volatility is looking back in time and figuring out the actual volatility that occurred during the expiry series. Realized volatility matters especially if you want to compare today’s implied volatility with respect to the historical implied volatility. We will explore this angle in detail when we take up “Option Trading Strategies”.

M5-Ch19-cartoon

19.2 – Vega

Have you noticed this – whenever there are heavy winds and thunderstorms, the electrical voltage in your house starts fluctuating violently, and with the increase in voltage fluctuations, there is a chance of a voltage surge and therefore the electronic equipments at house may get damaged.

Similarly, when volatility increases, the stock/index price starts swinging heavily. To put this in perspective, imagine a stock is trading at Rs.100, with increase in volatility, the stock can start moving anywhere between 90 and 110. So when the stock hits 90, all PUT option writers start sweating as the Put options now stand a good chance of expiring in the money. Similarly, when the stock hits 110, all CALL option writers would start panicking as all the Call options now stand a good chance of expiring in the money.

Therefore irrespective of Calls or Puts when volatility increases, the option premiums have a higher chance to expire in the money. Now, think about this – imagine you want to write 500 CE options when the spot is trading at 475 and 10 days to expire. Clearly there is no intrinsic value but there is some time value. Hence assume the option is trading at Rs.20. Would you mind writing the option? You may write the options and pocket the premium of Rs.20/- I suppose. However, what if the volatility over the 10 day period is likely to increase – maybe election results or corporate results are scheduled at the same time. Will you still go ahead and write the option for Rs.20? Maybe not, as you know with the increase in volatility, the option can easily expire ‘in the money’ hence you may lose all the premium money you have collected. If all option writers start fearing the volatility, then what would compel them to write options? Clearly, a higher premium amount would. Therefore instead of Rs.20, if the premium was 30 or 40, you may just think about writing the option I suppose.

In fact this is exactly what goes on when volatility increases (or is expected to increase) – option writers start fearing that they could be caught writing options that can potentially transition to ‘in the money’. But nonetheless, fear too can be overcome for a price, hence option writers expect higher premiums for writing options, and therefore the premiums of call and put options go up when volatility is expected to increase.

The graphs below emphasizes the same point –

Image 2_CE

 

Image 3_PE

X axis represents Volatility (in %) and Y axis represents the premium value in Rupees.  Clearly, as we can see, when the volatility increases, the premiums also increase. This holds true for both call and put options. The graphs here go a bit further, it shows you the behavior of option premium with respect to change in volatility and the number of days to expiry.

Have a look at the first chart (CE), the blue line represents the change in premium with respect to change in volatility when there is 30 days left for expiry, likewise the green and red line represents the change in premium with respect to change in volatility when there is 15 days left and 5 days left for expiry respectively.

Keeping this in perspective, here are a few observations (observations are common for both Call and Put options) –

  1. Referring to the Blue line – when there are 30 days left for expiry (start of the series) and the volatility increases from 15% to 30%, the premium increases from 97 to 190, representing about 95.5% change in premium
  2. Referring to the Green line – when there are 15 days left for expiry (mid series) and the volatility increases from 15% to 30%, the premium increases from 67 to 100, representing about 50% change in premium
  3. Referring to the Red line – when there are 5 days left for expiry (towards the end of series) and the volatility increases from 15% to 30%, the premium increases from 38 to 56, representing about 47% change in premium

Keeping the above observations in perspective, we can make few deductions –

  1. The graphs above considers a 100% increase of volatility from 15% to 30% and its effect on the premiums. The idea is to capture and understand the behavior of increase in volatility with respect to premium and time. Please be aware that observations hold true even if the volatility moves by smaller amounts like maybe 20% or 30%, its just that the respective move in the premium will be proportional
  2. The effect of Increase in volatility is maximum when there are more days to expiry – this means if you are at the start of series, and the volatility is high then you know premiums are plum. Maybe a good idea to write these options and collect the premiums – invariably when volatility cools off, the premiums also cool off and you could pocket the differential in premium
  3. When there are few days to expiry and the volatility shoots up the premiums also goes up, but not as much as it would when there are more days left for expiry. So if you are a wondering why your long options are not working favorably in a highly volatile environment, make sure you look at the time to expiry

So at this point one thing is clear – with increase in volatility, the premiums increase, but the question is ‘by how much?’. This is exactly what the Vega tells us.

The Vega of an option measures the rate of change of option’s value (premium) with every percentage change in volatility. Since options gain value with increase in volatility, the vega is a positive number, for both calls and puts. For example – if the option has a vega of 0.15, then for each % change in volatility, the option will gain or lose 0.15 in its theoretical value.

19.3 – Taking things forward

It is now perhaps time to revisit the path this module on Option Trading has taken and will take going forward (over the next few chapters).

We started with the basic understanding of the options structure and then proceeded to understand the Call and Put options from both the buyer and sellers perspective. We then moved forward to understand the moneyness of options and few basic technicalities with respect to options.

We further understood option Greeks such as the Delta, Gamma, Theta, and Vega along with a mini series of Normal Distribution and Volatility.

At this stage, our understanding on Greeks is one dimensional. For example we know that as and when the market moves the option premiums move owing to delta. But in reality, there are several factors that works simultaneously – on one hand we can have the markets moving heavily, at the same time volatility could be going crazy, liquidity of the options getting sucked in and out, and all of this while the clock keeps ticking. In fact this is exactly what happens on an everyday basis in markets. This can be a bit overwhelming for newbie traders. It can be so overwhelming that they quickly rebrand the markets as ‘Casino’. So the next time you hear someone say such a thing about the markets, make sure you point them to Varsity ☺.

Anyway, the point that I wanted to make is that all these Greeks manifest itself on the premiums and therefore the premiums vary on a second by second basis. So it becomes extremely important for the trader to fully understand these ‘inter Greek’ interactions of sorts. This is exactly what we will do in the next chapter. We will also have a basic understanding of the Black & Scholes options pricing formula and how to use the same.

19.4 – Flavors of Inter Greek Interactions

(The following article was featured in Business Line dated 31st August 2015)

Here is something that happened very recently. By now everyone remotely connected with the stock market would know that on 24th August 2015, the Indian markets declined close to 5.92% making it one of the worse single day declines in the history of Indian stock markets. None of the front line stocks survived the onslaught and they all declined by 8-10%. Panic days such as these are a common occurrence in the equity markets.

However something unusual happened in the options markets on 24th August 2015, here are some data points from that day –

Nifty declined by 4.92% or about 490 points –

Image 4_Nifty

India VIX shot up by 64% –

Image 5_Vol

But Call option Premiums shot up!

Image 6_Options chain

Traders familiar with options would know that the call option premiums decline when market declines. In fact most of the call option premiums (strikes below 8600) did decline in value but option strikes above 8650 behaved differently – their premium as opposed to the general expectation did not decline, rather increased by 50-80%. This move has perplexed many traders, with many of the traders attributing this move to random theories such as rate rigging, market manipulation, technological inefficiency, liquidity issues etc. But I suspect any of this is true; in fact this can be explained based on the option theory logic.

We know that option premiums are influenced by sensitivity factors aka the Option Greeks. Delta as we know captures the sensitivity of options premium with respect to the movement of the underlying. Here is a quick recap – if the Delta of a particular call option is 0.75, then for every 1 point increase/decrease in the underlying the premium is expected to increase/decrease by 0.75 points. On 24th August, Nifty declined by 490 points, so all call options which had ‘noticeable Delta’ (like 0.2, 0.3, 0.6 etc) declined. Typically ‘in the money’ options (as on 24th Aug, all strike below 8600) tend to have noticeable Delta, therefore all their premiums declined with the decline in the underlying.

‘Out of the money’ options usually have a very low delta like 0.1 or lower. This means, irrespective of the move in the underlying the moment in the option premium will be very restrictive. As on August 24th, all options above 8600 were ‘out of the money’ options with low delta values. Hence irrespective of the massive fall in the market, these call options did not lose much premium value.

The above explains why certain call options did not lose value, but why did the premiums go up? The answer to this is lies in Vega – the option Greek which captures the sensitivity of market volatility on options premiums.

With increase in volatility, the Vega of an option increases (irrespective of calls and puts), and with increase in Vega, the option premium tends to increase. On 24th August the volatility of Indian markets shot up by 64%. This increase in volatility was totally unexpected by the market participants. With the increase in volatility, the Vega of all options increases, thereby their respective premiums also increased. The effect of Vega is particularly high for ‘Out of the money’ options.  So on one hand the low delta value of ‘out of the money’ call options prevented the option premiums from declining while on the other hand, high Vega value increased the option premium for these out of the money options.

Hence on 24th August 2015 we got to witness the unusual – call option premium increasing 50 – 80% on a day when markets crashed 5.92%.


Key takeaways from this chapter

  1. Historical Volatility is measured by the closing prices of the stock/index
  2. Forecasted Volatility is forecasted by volatility forecasting models
  3. Implied Volatility represents the market participants expectation of volatility
  4. India VIX represents the implied volatility over the next 30 days period
  5. Vega measures the rate of change of premium with respect to change in volatility
  6. All options increase in premium when volatility increases
  7. The effect of volatility is highest when there are more days left for expiry



736 comments

  1. Rajdeep says:

    Do you plan to have a module/chapter on mathematical/statistical models in trading?
    On the same note, do you use VAR,GARCH,ARIMA etc. and different time series models using a forecasting software like EVIEWS for trading.
    Is it a good idea to combine statistical models with technical analysis for trading or are they chalk and cheese?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Rajdeep – a module on Statistical models will be an awesome! Will probably do that sometime in future.

      Yes, I’ve used GARCH models earlier…but these were built from scratch on R and Excel. Have not used any software for this. Also, I’m not sure if its a good idea to combine TA and stats…never done that before so cant really comment.

    • Vijaya bhaskar says:

      Does Vega won’t have negative value

  2. prasad madhav says:

    Dear Karthik,
    Today, for the 1st time, I made a profit of more than Rs.1000/- on Zerodha website since I am client of Zerodha client. Previously, I mistakenly made a loss of Rs. 270/-. The full credit for this goes to u, because of u I was able to understand options very well. God bless and continue this valuable service to us and the society in whole.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I’m so glad to hear this, hope this is the start of something bigger for you. By the way you need to attribute your success to your hard work and nothing else 🙂

      Good luck!

  3. Wannbetrader says:

    Awesomeness !!!! Wish I had read this before 16th May 2014 the election results day, I was long and in handsome virtual profit but suddenly the market went down (now I know the volatility dried up) :-).

    I wish vega of brining the newer lessons go high and we don’t have to wait long for next chapter . 🙂

  4. raj says:

    hi Karthik, so what does a vega of say 12 and the price of a particular underlying moving by INR 10 signify?

  5. prasad madhav says:

    Dear Karthik,
    Can u please let me know the website wherein we can see the candlestick formation as the market is on. It was somewhere during the Options module or Technical analysis module. Can u please let me know. Regards.

  6. R.P. Hans says:

    Totally speechless. Wonderful chapter. So one should not go long when volatility is high. Can you please explain the safe volatility value for going long on options.
    I assume that change in vega will come in the next chapter.
    Can you please give examples w.r.t. the event happening every three months, company results and volatility.
    I have noticed last week at the end, option value declined even though there was increase in the stock value, due to volatility came down to normal value. e.g. relcap CE340.
    Can you please also give us the list of remaining chapter in this module to know how much we do not know and how much time we shall wait to really restart option trading.
    Thanks a lot.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Glad you liked the chapter. Here are the answers –

      1) For each instrument the volatility value varies. For example 12-15% volatility for Nifty could be considered low…but Infy 20-25% could be considered low.

      2) Have discussed change in vega in this chapter only, the upcoming chapter will contain details on Gamma vs Time, Gamma vs Strike etc.

      3) Corporate results and RBI monetary policy are two regular events that drive up volatility

      4) Possible – decrease in volatility reduces the price of option premiums

      5) The modules is almost coming to end…maybe 2 or 3 chapters more.

  7. madhu nair says:

    hi, Karthik, in the chapter above, you have said -” The effect of Vega is particularly high for ‘Out of the money’ options.” does that mean Vega is higher for deep OTM options compared to OTM options? as, when i calculate using the option calculator vega is higher for OTM compared to deep OTM.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Madhu – yes, deep OTM options do react to change in volatility – but do bear in mind this has to be a massive change in volatility, like what happened on 24th August. However, such events are not very frequent.

  8. Abhijit Haware says:

    Dear Karthik Sir,
    I just virtually take position – long call and long put of slightly OTM strike and difference between two strikes is 100,
    Put IV is more than Call IV – Nifty was down by almost 200 points, put premium increased drastically and call premium decreases slowly.

    buy sell Qty p n l / no Total profit / loss
    Long NIFTY SEP15 7850 PE 175.16 289.95 100.00 114.79 11479.00
    Long NIFTY SEP15 7950 CE 181.98 143.25 100.00 -38.73 -3873.00
    Net profit 7,606

    Call IV is more than put IV – Nifty going up by 100 points, but call premium increasing slowly but put premium decreasing very fast

    buy sell Qty p n l / no Total profit / loss
    Long NIFTY SEP15 7700 PE 160.20 125.45 100.00 -34.75 -3475.00
    Long NIFTY SEP15 7800 CE 180.00 202.80 100.00 22.80 2280.00
    Net profit -1195

    Kindly let me know what exactly is happening because of IV?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      See for IV to have any effect on premiums, the change in IV should be quite large. I suppose the premiums here are moving, largely attributable to delta (directional move).

      • Abhijit Haware says:

        ok..but when Nifty is going up why not call premium is going up? like u said about OTM strikes, suppose delta is 0.5 and if Nifty moves up by 2 points premium should move by 1 point, and also put premium falling sharply.
        I also observed that even if Nifty is moving in upward direction call premium is falling and put premium is increasing, is it because of participants expecting reversal?
        Also kindly let me if any virtual trading platform available in India to test options strategies, I think that would be better to test options strategies without actually investing hard earned money.
        Thank you

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Firstly, OTM deltas cant be 0.5…it has to be a value far lesser than 0.5. Change in premium is dependent on delta, time to expiry, and volatility. If the volatility is high then even if markets are dropping, CE premiums can increase.

          No, I’m not sure of any option trading virtual platforms.

        • Ankit says:

          May be volcu.be are the place where we can test our skills…

  9. Abhijit Haware says:

    Sir, Regarding my above query kindly refer below image

  10. Ankit says:

    Dear karthik
    can u pls… tells us in how much time we can expect a full proof module on option topic.

  11. Anand Singh says:

    Hi Karthik, Premium value provide by B&S calculator provided by Zerodha is different from what is posted on option chain in NSE site. Please check and confirm if I m doing something wrong.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Well, the B&S calculator tells you what should be the fair value given the inputs you have fed in. This could be very different from the market value.

  12. Anand Singh says:

    B&S cal

  13. Anand Singh says:

    i tried calculating details for 7900CE

  14. Mukul says:

    Hi Karthik,
    Today I bought 8000Ce @55 and now eod reach to @75 when I check with zerodha using Black & Scholes option calculator it shows 48.71.
    Should I assume this CE is overvalued? or something missing from me.

  15. AMIT SHARMA says:

    hi karthik . i trade options on the basis of the underlying Stock price movement, by tracking volume and RSI divergences , ADX . and mostly buy naked calls and put options dependent on the stock movement on the b/o for the 2-3 % move. I have studied the greeks on the varsity and this has given me an all new persective on the Price movement, thanks for making it so interesting and easy for anyone to understand, i think you are doing a great job here. Plz request you to also throw some light on LIQUIDITY in stock options and how to check that on any website….cheers
    Aks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Glad to hear this Amit – liquidity is an important aspect of trading options, will try and include it in the ongoing series. Thanks.

  16. Sanket says:

    What is Series while downloading historical data. I’m trying to download SBIN data.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The series would be ‘EQ’ for stocks (including SBIN). The reason why you see so many series for SBIN is because SBIN is a Bank and besides stocks, most of SBIN’s debentures and bonds are listed as well.

      • Sanket says:

        Thank you so much! And yes your writings are precious. Very eagerly waiting to read Options Strategies. You won’t believe I’ve bookmarked it & check daily if it is there.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Sanket – thanks for the kind words, this is encouraging to all of us!

          Another 2 or more chapter and we will be done with Options Theory…onwards to strategies then!

  17. Matrix says:

    Hi Karthik,

    When can we read on Option Strategies ???

  18. Saeed says:

    Thank you for all these useful and concise materials.

    Today(18/9/2015) nifty closed up around 83 points @7981, but Sep 24 CE8200 lost 53% closing @8.25
    Can u tell me why this happened.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Few reasons –

      1) Volatility cracked around 17%…check India Vix
      2) Time value (Theta) is starting to act on options premiums
      3) OTM option’s Gamma starts tending towards zero as we approach expiry (although we have another 6-8 days for expiry)..hence the impact of delta (further implies impact of directional movement of underlying) is low.

  19. Dhiraj says:

    In Chapter 5 :
    I find the below content…
    —————————————————
    Important note – The calculation of the intrinsic value, P&L, and Breakeven point are all with respect to the expiry. So far in this module, we have assumed that you as an option buyer or seller would set up the option trade with an intention to hold the same till expiry.

    But soon you will realize that that more often than not, you will initiate an options trade only to close it much earlier than expiry. Under such a situation the calculations of breakeven point may not matter much, however the calculation of the P&L and intrinsic value does matter and there is a different formula to do the same.

    To put this more clearly let me assume two situations on the Bank Nifty Trade, we know the trade has been initiated on 7th April 2015 and the expiry is on 30th April 2015–
    1.What would be the P&L assuming spot is at 17000 on 30th April 2015?
    2.What would be the P&L assuming spot is at 17000 on 15th April 2015 (or for that matter any other date apart from the expiry date)

    Answer to the first question is fairly simple, we can straight way apply the P&L formula –

    = Max (0, 18400 – 17000) – 315

    = Max (0, 1400) – 315

    = 1400 – 315

    = 1085

    Going on to the 2nd question, if the spot is at 17000 on any other date apart from the expiry date, the P&L is not going to be 1085, it will be higher. We will discuss why this will be higher at an appropriate stage, but for now just keep this point in the back of your mind.
    ——————————————————————————————————————–

    TO BE PRECISE,
    My Question is : If I am PUT or CALL Seller do I need to wait till end of EXPIRY to execute ( Square Off ) My Position?
    HOW is the PROFIT LOSS calculated in case of Selling CALL and PUT.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      In case of an options seller, the profit is limited to the extent of the premium received. However the loss as you may know can be unlimited. Also you need not have to hold the options till expiry, you can choose to square-off whenever you want.

  20. Ajay says:

    So, if one thinks that there will be an increase in volatility, the prudent option would be to buy an OTM option because-a) the effect of Vega is higher on OTM options and b) since they have a low delta. Also, it would be better to buy an option which has more time left till expiry as the effect of theta will be minimal. Is that right?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Right – when buying options it is important to evaluate the situation based on time and volatility. There has to be more time for expiry, and the volatility should be expected to increases.

  21. r v n sastry says:

    Dear Sir,
    (1)Likewise 12-15% Nifty IV can be considered as LOW, I would request you to kindly advise from where Nifty can be considered as HIGH for guidence purpose. ( 2 )Also can I consider above 17% of India VIX as HIGH. Thanking you very much Sir. R.V.N.Sastry

  22. Sumeet Nagar says:

    Hi Karthik,
    Few Queries..
    1. What value of vega is considered as high and low for stocks or indices?
    2. what values of IV’s are considered as high and low for Bank Nifty?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      For indices – take ViX value. About 17-18% for Nifty is average.

      For Stocks and Bank Nifty – you need calculate the daily volatility and convert it to annual volatility to get a quick perspective.

  23. aehsan4004 says:

    1) can you please explain more about VIX india ?
    2) vega is always positive …. volatility be always positive or it can be negetive as well ?
    3) vega intereacts with volatility or change in volatility ?
    4) vega always appreciates the value or it may depreciate the value as well ?
    5) can be consider vega and OPTION-BUYERs friend ,if it always increases the value ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Check this – http://zerodha.com/z-connect/queries/stock-and-fo-queries/trading-india-vix-simplified
      2) Volatility is always positive
      3) Vega represents the sensitivity of the premium wrt to change in the volatility
      4) Increase in volatility (and hence vega) always tends to increase the premium
      5) Low vega is buyer’s friend, high vega is seller’s friend 🙂

      • aehsan4004 says:

        thank you sir ,
        continuing question to point 4 .

        1) what happens when volatility decreases after we have bought the option ?

        2) there are several technical & fundamental analysis methods to predict directional movement …… how the same the be done to predict increase or decrease in volatility ?

        3) is it possible to create to vega neutral option pairs ? i assume no, as vega is always positive .but pls do elaborate .

        4) kindly elaborate more on “Low vega is buyer’s friend, high vega is seller’s friend” .

        5) IN THE OPTION CHAIN SHOWN IN THIS CHAPTER ….. CERTAIN STRIKE PRICES HAVE A ( – ) in the IV , means IV not available ….. what exactly does it mean ?

        thank you

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          1) The premiums tend to go lower due to lower volatility. But then the direction also matters…if the underlying is moving quickly then on one hand premiums would go up (due to the speed at which underlying is moving) and on the other, the premium would tend to go lower (due to lower volatility). Finally which ever greek has more significance (in that particular scenario) would dominate the play.

          2) You need to be aware of both, check chapter 23, section 23.5.

          3) Should be – I will get back to you on this at a later stage

          4) Low vega means low premium value…so good for buyers and vice versa

          5) I guess so.

  24. Vivek says:

    Hi Karthik
    Sorry for clobbering you with questions but I really am unable to sort these doubts of mine.
    1) I am facing trouble as to when to use India VIX, Annualized volatility given for the Nifty as such and the different Implied Volatility for different strikes in the Option chain. Please clarify
    2) Some strikes don’t have any IV given. What does this imply?
    3) As mentioned by you most of the trading in Options is done with Volatility concept as the fulcrum, how to go about it? I googled GARCh as mentioned by you but couldn’t find anything fruitful.

    That would be all as of now 😛

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Vivek, keep them coming – its always a pleasure to help!

      1) I would suggest you take the annualized volatility and not really the strike specific volatility
      2) Not sure why the data goes missing for few strikes
      3) Check this for GARCH – http://cims.nyu.edu/~almgren/timeseries/Vol_Forecast1.pdf

      • Vivek says:

        Karthik,
        I have tried looking on internet for GARCH and Volatility forecasting stuff. I went through the pdf you shared as well but to tell you frankly I didn’t understand a single sentence. All sounded French to me. Can you please let me know what am I missing or if you could suggest some more basic literature. The best option would be your easy-to-understand lesson on Statistical analysis but gauging limited time availability to you if you could share with me some literature I will be obliged to you. 🙂

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          The PDFs are best source. The topic itself is quite mathematics/statistics heavy…simplifying it would be a herculean task!

  25. Prashant says:

    Karthik, Would it be a fair comment if i said that IVs tend to work more in your favor when you have bought puts rather than when you have bought calls. I say that based on the following understanding.
    1. IVs are represented by the VIX index which is also known as the fear index.
    2. Markets fall on fear and Vix generally rises in a fearful market. On the other hand, when there is less fear and more confidence/greed, Vix is generally lower.
    3. We buy puts when markets are falling and by corollary from the above 2, Vix works in our favor because it is likely to rise…..

    Most of the opposite happens in case of calls. So in a call, we generally dont get help from the IV…..

    Would you agree or Have i understood something incorrectly?

    Wish you a very happy new year!

  26. mahe says:

    Hi,

    I found the article very interesting and I thought I should leave a comment for a few reasons.
    First of all, I am a big fan of Tarantino. Pulp fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Django Unchained are my favourites. I can recite a number of dialogues from the movie. I love them
    secondly, I can’t forget 24th August as that’s the date the market so spectacularly taught me that I was wrong. I lost over 1.5lac in less than 30 mins of opening 🙂
    my 4 months of hard work, crushed by the steam roller in less than 30 mins. In all other times that i had made loss in the past, i had exactly known what I did wrong. Some of the time it was greed, fear in some other or mere sloppiness. But this time I had stuck to the plan, did all the right things, but I had a spectacular fall. It left me confused and questioning my strategy. I haven’t quite found a method to tweak my strategy to withstand such a fall and therefore haven’t been trading lot since.
    And thirdly, I can relate to the OTM calls refusing to give up value on the day of the crash. I wanted to square off the CALL side to free up capital to repair the PUT side. But the CALL side gaining value instead had greatly annoyed me 🙂
    It was Vega in play. Another lesson learnt, humbly.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Market is probably the best teacher! It has unusual ways to teach simple lessons 🙂

      I love Tarantino as well 🙂

      Good luck for all your future trades – learn & evolve!

  27. rohan says:

    how to use vega in calculation premium. you have explained use of delta and gamma in calculating option premium.
    but how to use vega value that we get from B&S calculator?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Well, vega can be used pretty much the same way as delta..I guess you got the math right in your previous comment with Delta & Theta.

  28. Hari says:

    Hi bro,
    From your experience, do you think greek (other than delta) really affects for interday trading?
    Thank you 🙂

  29. CA. PRAKASH TANAK says:

    Sir, today on 12/02/2016 IOC declared its results for Q3. From the options chain, it is observed that there is a +ve change in the premium of its CE 360 to CE 410 but at the same time there is +ve change in the premium of its PE 340 to PE 420 ……… Can you please explain the reasons for this +ve change in both CE as well as PE when the underlying security shows a decline of 2.06% in spot? …….. Is it because of the liquidity due to very low volume in IOC options or is it because the Q3 results were declared by IOC at the fag end almost after the trading hours of today?

  30. Darshan says:

    Dear Karthik – I read this somewhere “Usually out of the money options have a higher IV, the trade typically could be if it is much above the MEAN IV, it could be a good time to sell them and much below the MEAN time to buy.” My question is what is MEAN in the sentence. Request if you can please explain ? Thanks.

  31. Ritwik says:

    Karthik,
    How do the Greeks automatically keep changing the price of an option? Is there a market maker? Also, about the news article you mentioned, did the premiums automatically adjust or there were people who bought or sold to affect the price?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      There is no concept of market making in India. However there is a fairly good arbitrage environment, mainly driven by HTF algos. I suppose they are responsible for getting these greeks and premium aligned and on track.

  32. Devenndra Chandraakar says:

    Hi Karthik ,
    Can You please help me in getting the source of the data mentioned in your Volatility Cone excel sheet.
    Thanks and Regards
    Devenndra

  33. deepak dhanwani says:

    Dear kartik sir
    If u don’t mind Can u please give a clear example of how to calculate vega as i didn’t understand clearly from the above example given by you…i mean vega should be calculated on daily implied volatility or what?? Still confused… please give one more example in detail…sorry for giving you trouble??

  34. deepak dhanwani says:

    In chapter 19.2 you have mentioned that vega will be calculated on change of each % of volatility..so here volatility is implied volatility or india vix???

  35. Naresh says:

    Dear Karthik, IS the following comment addressed in your new articles ! Can you direct through a llink . Thanks ….Realized volatility matters especially if you want to compare today’s implied volatility with respect to the historical implied volatility. We will explore this angle in detail when we take up “Option Trading Strategies”.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I’ve addressed this is in various bits across the modules. However the most concrete way of dealing with this is by setting up volatility arbitrage trades, which is still not explained in Varsity.

  36. Ral says:

    I’ve read all the chapters of this module and made a strong conception upon Option. But got trapped in Vega section. Here I’m not able to relate vega with volatility. Can Vega relate with volatility and time as in the link – http://www.theoptionsguide.com/vega.aspx
    Please correct me where I’m wrong!

  37. Isaac Maria says:

    Hello Sir, I just wanted to clarify is my approach right. If I want to buy a Call Option, I will first check Volatility Cone of a given underlying and if the volatility is near -2SD and if GARCH model predicts the future volatility to increase in next few days before the expiry.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Bingo! That is exactly how one should go about before buying naked options 🙂

      • Isaac Maria says:

        Thank you very much sir 🙂 I would be really grateful if you could share GARCH process excel sheet or R programming file, I tried making it myself but it was really difficult to understand. I wanted to know one more thing, Sir as you had said in Future Trading module to predict movements of NIFTY, one should have knowledge about general Indian Economic activities so from where can I gain this knowledge.

  38. AVINASH KUMAR says:

    Hello Karthik Sir,First of all Thank you for sharing your trading experience with us.its really very helpful for us.Still i m trying to learn Option so please help me and do needful..
    I have some doubt related to volatility…Please do needful…I got the volatility data of CEAT of September series 2016.
    CALL 30.31
    PUT 35.12
    HV 41.29
    From these data, there would be any help to take decision before initiate trade if so please share your knowledge..

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      You are welcome Avinash.

      Just with these many data points it is not possible to identify a trade. You will have to dig deeper, for example identify if the historical volatility is higher or lower compared to the current volatility…if its higher, maybe you want to sell an option..or if its lesser, maybe you want to consider buying an option. So this thing needs more digging up.

  39. amit gupta says:

    why vega is common for PE&CE at same strike?,despite of having different IV at same strike price.what must be low vega value and high vega value for identifying the trade .

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      IV for the given strike is same for both CE & PE, else you will have an arbitrage opportunity.

      • haribabu says:

        I can’t understand IV same for CE and PE for given strike. But on the Option chain chart it shows different
        can you elaborate ?

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          All else equal the Implied Volatility for both Call and Put option for the same strike is supposed to be the same. Think about it, implied volatility is the volatility that the market expects on an overall basis. Market does not differentiate and allot different implied vol’s for call and puts. Hence IV is the same for both CE & PE. However, markets are not efficient as we think – the discrepancies in demand / supply, sentiments factors etc act upon the IVs and therefore they tend to be different for different strikes.

  40. MADHUSUDAN says:

    Hi kArthik,
    Many congratulation for winning Bootstrap startup award.As always i loved your every chapter and contentiously reading your module and yes this help me a lot while doing trading and it always provide me a confidence of thinking in a technical way rather then following instinct.Thanks for such a hard effort.You are doing something out of the box.I always suggest people to follow varsity.
    I have certain inquiry.
    1: Can i operate multiple brokerage account as i am trading with sasonline but i aslo want to taste your platform.
    2.If NO, then what i have to do in order to register with zerodha.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for the kind words Madhusudan 🙂

      Click on the “Open Zerodha Account” on the Varsity homepage (you will find it at right bottom) and enter your details. Someone from the sales team will pick up your lead and help you open your account.

      Yes, you can choose to trade with multiple brokers…but frankly, you just need one good broker and that would be Zerodha 🙂

  41. Gurmukh Singh says:

    Dear Sirji, is my observation right? on 14th dec nifty index closing price was 8182.45, and nifty 8100dec pe was 68.70 and volatility around 18%. so theta was 2.86 delta 0.342, vega 6. and the next day nifty close 28 point down 8153. but 8100dec pe was also don by 7 point around 61.35. and volatility around 15%. so my question is why the pe was also down.due to volatility? volatility was down by 3% so loss of 6*3=18 points and theta loss was 3 point. so total loss of long option 21 point aprox. and due to delta around 0.35 the profit was 28*.035 was 10 point resulting to the net loss of 21-10=11 point which worked to 68.70-11=57.70, and it is closw to 57.35 which LTP on 15 dec 2016

  42. sarath says:

    sir,
    is there any software that give live option greeks ..?
    Thanks
    Sarath

  43. Sarath says:

    Hy sir,

    Thanks for the reply, one more doubt . Implied volatility means expected volatility in future .If 8300 ce has IV of 11.94.
    1. IV of 11.94 means volatility in particular strike or spot?
    2. IV of 11.94 means future expected volatility then how we get the current volatility..?
    3. IV of 11.94 is high or low?

    Thanks
    sarath

  44. varungr087 says:

    Hi Karthik,
    Is there any website where we can get CHARTS of historical data of volatility of various stocks/index and also screeners where I can screen options based on volatility, say I want to get list of stocks where implied volatility is greater than its highest volatility etc etc

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I’m not sure of any such websites. However, we are thinking about this and may come up something in the near future.

  45. Mehul says:

    Hi karthik,
    I have one doubt
    Kindly clarify
    You have mentioned above that ” imagine you want to write 500 CE option where spot is at 475″
    Here
    Spot – 475
    Strike – 500
    CE – call option & writing CE means i am bearish
    So.when i m waiting for 500 CE to drop further how could i sell it when it is already at 475 ?
    Thanks in advance

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Mehul, 500 is the strike, and 475 is the spot. I’d suggest you start reading from the beginning of this module to get a clear idea.

  46. Mehul says:

    Hello karthik,
    Thanks for the reply.
    I have gone through the chapter 4 again and this is what i understood :
    Irrespective of the spot price i can choose the appropriate strike price and in the above case i wish the spot remains at 475 or below strike i.e 500 only then i make money.
    But I have a small cofusion…
    Please guide
    Suppose
    Strike – 500CE
    Spot – 475
    Position – short
    If i do not exercise, and square off my position then, what amount of premium received will i be able to keep ?
    Can i square off the very next moment ?
    Sorry to bother you karthik again.
    Thanks in advance.

  47. Vamsi says:

    Karthik,
    I know and remember the day 24 AUG 2015. A doubt popped up giving this a second read. How did the settlement happen on this unusual day? I mean since the option premium increased did the long gained money and shorts lose? Ignore if it is a foolish question. Just out of curiosity.

  48. james says:

    Respected Sir,
    Gratitude for your last guidance regarding the portfolio optimization & beta values.
    And thanks for simplifying such advance trading topics for us for laying strong foundation of Model Thinking. Have a few general doubts –
    1) When we talk about ‘volatility’ (informally) in day-to-day trading practice, in general, which volatility are we exactly talking about (IV, Historical, Forecasted, …) ?
    2) Which volatility has more significance/priority for traders in practical world?
    3) What is considered a normal range of India VIX? For example – Nifty50 ranges between 16x to 20x P/E with average of 18x (as per Module 3 Chapter 11). However, now I think its range has practically shifted up.
    4) Volatility is high = Vega is high. Does that mean India VIX is high = Vega is high?
    5) Is there any defined method/model/process which converts market triggers/news into numerical values for utilization in any sort of formula/model to quantify their impact on price movements? If yes, please provide any relevant link.
    6) Does Zerodha offer any programming platform/facility where traders can code their trading models to automate buy/sell using terminal tools & data and market triggers/news, also test and modify it, if necessary?
    Regards
    James

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) We are generally talk about the current state of volatility which is the Implied Volatility
      2) IV
      3) Yes, it has. India Vix around sub 15 seems to be the norm these days
      4) Yes. But remember, ViX is for Nifty….may not be applicable to stocks.
      5) Yes, check for the concept of ‘Principle Component Analysis’. It is a statistical technique, traders use it in markets for the exactly the same purpose that you have mentioned. I have very little knowledge about it
      6) You may want to check out Kite Connect APIs – kite.trade

  49. james says:

    Respected Sir,
    Getting few cracks in core concepts, please clarify –
    1) The IV of option near 9300CE Nifty (Spot-9119.40) is 10.16%. You told it is IV of strike price (not spot price) – not got this point? How can strike price be volatile, it is fixed at regular price intervals to form an option chain and does not move, it is spot price of underlying that moves, right? So, is it IV of premium of that strike price?? Please help.
    Regards
    James

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      When I say strike, I’m talking about that strike’s premium. Every strike has its own IV.

      • James says:

        Ohh! Thanks a lot Sir!
        That was very confusing for me when I used to look at nifty option chain taking the concept of Vega into account. Also, it has become understandable why IV is minimum for ATM strikes & rises as I traversed towards OTM strikes.
        No one clear trading concept doubts as efficiently as you do.
        Thanks again, Sir.

  50. james says:

    As per superb explanation of change in Vega across time, it is clear that as time passes vega decreases. But what about change in vega across option chain of same expiry. I am not able to clearly deduce that from the text.
    However, as per my understanding, Vega of ATM must be higher as compared to ITM or OTM, somewhat forming Bell Curve like Gamma. Am i right?? If not, please correct me.
    Thanks in advance.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Absolutely, Vega for ATM is the highest. It is quite natural, as ATM options sit on the fence. It can swing either ways…so its kind of fickle and volatile. However, OTM and ITM have already taken sides and therefore the volatility is lower for these options.

  51. James says:

    Respected Sir,
    My question is general, but I find it relevant to post it in this chapter. I searched but found confusing unstructured answers, please help.
    1) Just like India VIX, is there any single volatility index for overall Global Markets? If yes, please provide reference.
    2) In addition, please list the few important Volatility Indexes of the major Markets (US, UK, European, Asian & others) in the world for overall volatility heat-map.
    [I find your guidance highly helpful, for traders like me, to understand/track the extant/effects of (global) events better, like recent French Elections.]
    Regards
    James

  52. vignesh supali says:

    Should we compare IV of strike price directly with annualized HV or Daily volatility * SQRT(no of days left to expiry) ?
    How to guage volatility is cooling off?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      You need to compare across similar time frames. For example daily with daily, and annual with annual. When volatility decreases, it suggests a cool off in Vol.

  53. Tanmay Dhar says:

    Dear Karthik Sir,

    Thank you and your team for amazing explanations.
    One query outside of this topic. With COIN being introduced, can you and your team please share knowledge on how to study Mutual Fund.

  54. Aishwary Singh says:

    Thank you again for quick response to the queries and explaining complex terms with superb examples. It is very helpful with the kind of examples you give. I do have few more to ask kindly review it.
    1.) Banknifty has a daily movement 200-300 points (usually or in most days), so does more volatility signify that it is more prone to black swan event?
    2.) The futures of banknifty are trading at a discount of 33 rs. does it have a slight bearish significance though the technical indicate a strong buy or why is it trading lower than the spot?

    Since you have provided with so much valuable information and also good recommendations (fooled by randomness, I like I like).
    1)I wanted to add few: Vega isn’t greek, kappa is( vega is more common though, stumbled upon this on mit openware)
    2) What we cannot know by marcus du satoy is also a very good read giving an insight on randomness and other factors.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Kind of, higher volatility favors black swan events
      2) Not really. Discount/premium cannot be used to estimate the sentiment in the market
      3) Vega is a 2nd order derivative – so as far as I know, it falls under the Óption Geeks umbrella. Kappa is 3rd order I guess…and it is also an option geek

  55. Rahul says:

    Hi sir,
    On july 14,infosys stock price was down by 5.00(0.51%) even though stock went down all put options(every strike price) lost premium why? and also some of ITM call options gained value….how?

  56. ayush says:

    sir, i am confused in nifty example;

    The INDIA VIX (volatility) was 64% up & as you said there will be increase in premium with increase in volatility,
    so why there was decrease in premium of ITM, ATM, OTM options and it went down?

    Sir, where am i wrong. please correct me

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      It really depends on the strike you are dealing with. If the option is far OTM, then volatility does not have much impact on premium.

  57. ayush says:

    when volatility increases, the vega also increases and the premium will also increase.
    OR
    when volatility increases, vega will also increase and the premium can fluctuate in any direction (high or low).

    sir, where am i wrong,

  58. Ayush says:

    How can we use particular strike price IV for analysis?
    1. Will we have to compare with it annual Historical volatility.
    2. Or we have to compare it with India vix (but India vix is only for nifty ).

  59. ayush says:

    what if option underlying is falling continuously assume by 30% and volatility increased by 40%
    1. how will CE and PE option premium react?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      This also depends on the time to expiry. If there is ample time to expiry, then the fall in price has a greater impact on premiums compared to volatility. On the other hand, if the time to expiry is less…then volatility has a tad bit higher impact on premiums.

  60. I am A Treder says:

    HI Karthik ,

    On 02-10-2017 I HAVE CHECKED THE NSE SITE FOR STRIKE @ 9700 (CE) THE IV IS 6.39,and the under lying is trading @ 9786(Nifty Spot Price) . My question is what would be the IV for the same strike price if nifty trade @ 9746 and 9796 ?. If you have a solution please let me know the calculation process .

    Thank you for the efforts !

  61. KUMAR MAYANK says:

    Hello sir

    1.How could we know if implied volatiliy of a stock is low or high?
    2. How could we know if the implied volatility of a stock is going to increase or decrease?
    3. Does a naked option buying is mere a speculation and not a trading?
    thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) By comparing it with the historical volatility
      2) That is your trading call
      3) Again depends on your trading logic.

  62. KUMAR MAYANK says:

    There are 2 stocks A and B.
    The IV of A for its ATM strike for particular expiry is 23.
    Similarly the IV of B for its ATM strike for the same expiry is 35. Can we say that B is more volatile than A?
    Thank you

  63. Prakhar says:

    Can we conclude that the volatility of stock has increased from nse option chain IV. Suppose IV on 13 dec. Is 33% and on 15dec for same strike it is showing 50%.Will this implies that volatility of stock has increased from 33 to 50.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, this is exactly what it means.

      • Prakhar says:

        Thank You very much.
        One more doubt suppose currently implide volatility of sbi for 310 strike is 30% and it’s annualised volatility is near about 44% does it means that volatility of sbi is low than it’s historical volatility and one should look at buying the premium (after considering theta)

  64. trader says:

    is it proper to apply normal technical analysis rules to the INDIAVIX candlestick chart and trying to predict whether volatility is going to increase or fall?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      No, it is not a good idea to apply TA to INDIAVIX. I’d suggest you look up on few statistical techniques like GARCH(1,1) for predicting volatility.

  65. ajay says:

    Hi Karthik,
    To Predict volatality of a stock
    1.Where can i get GARCH Tool,pls share link
    2. What are the input parameters required to use GARCH(1,1)
    3.Where to check ANNUALISED IV of a stock,pls share the link.
    Thank You ಕಾರ್ತಿಕ್ ಭಾಯ್!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      You need to build one yourself – you can do this on excle if you know the math behind. Unfortunately, I’m not aware of any tool available online. I’m not an expert on GARCH, so my inputs is wont really matter 🙂

  66. Azeem says:

    1. Pulp fiction is over rated
    2. This chapter was a bouncer… should have written it within 3-4 chapters like delta and gamma. My brain is unable to understand this!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Pulp Fiction is very similar to markets – people are bullish and bearish on the same stock at the same time 🙂
      2) I have, starting from chapter 15!

  67. santosh patidar says:

    VIX is calculated based on OTM options order. That is the reason OTM options price changes more than say “X”% daily ? Want to know VIX impact only, other factors like theta, delta also matter but want to know vega effect only.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Vega effect on?

      • santosh patidar says:

        Vega effect on OTM strikes.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Increase in vega increases the option premium.
          A decrease in vega decreases the option premium.

          • Subbarayudu says:

            HI Karthik,
            “Thank you” is very small word for the kind of knowledge and service you are doing for the financial world. You are teaching how to fish rather than giving fish. Hats-off for your efforts and dedication towards educating us and guiding us in proper direction.
            Coming to this article, I have few doubts regarding Vega. Could you please elaborate the impact of Vega on deep OTM option?
            Referring the August 24, 2015 scenario
            1. I really don’t understand why the option buyer wanted to pay more premium when markets were in deep correction and also the other options below 8650 CE were available with lesser premium?
            2. If high volatility increases(High Vega) the premium, why did the options below 8650 CE started losing the value.
            Thank you in advance.

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            Thanks for the kind words, Subbarayudu 🙂

            1) It is not really about what the buyer wanted to do – its more about why the premium of a call option shot up on a day like that. This is a counter-intuitive and can only be attributed to the increase in Vega
            2) This is because they had a higher delta, which is more reactive to the changes in the spot.

  68. Kulbir says:

    Hi Karthik,
    Really nice piece of article on the events of August 24, 2015.

    Is there some instrument or way to trade Volatility in the markets on a day to day basis.
    I tried searching for India VIX Future contracts but they have very poor liquidity.

    Any suggestion will be helpful.

    Regards
    Kulbir

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The best way to trade Volatility is via options. India ViX is not tradable anymore.

      • Kulbir says:

        Hi Karthik,

        Thanks for your quick reply.

        As you may know that when markets open during the morning, there is a spike in volatility for the first 30 to 45 minutes after which the volatility dies down.

        I was exploring the idea of buying options of Nifty with delta close to zero in the morning and then selling them before the morning volatility dies down. Before proceeding with this idea I wanted to collect some data and also take some suggestions from an experienced trader like you.Please let me know your opinion on this.

        Regards
        Kulbir

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          It looks like a good idea, Kulbir. But my concern is that for deep OTM options to react ( since you want to consider delta os 0), the increase in volatility has to be really high, which may not be the case at the opening.

          However, this should not hold you back from collecting data and moving further also if you don’t mind, do share your results with the community here. Good luck!

          • Kulbir says:

            Hi Karthik,

            I understand the concern about the very deep OTM options. Just to get the probability in my favor I have thought about buying either deep OTM Calls or Puts(depending on if the market opens up or down). Will try not to go very deep OTM as liquidity might also be a concern.

            Yes I will definitely share the data if I find it useful.

            Regards
            Kulbir

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            Good luck, Kulbir!

  69. Aishwarya says:

    Hello sir,

    In the above chapter, you have stated “The effect of Vega is particularly high for ‘Out of the money’ options”.
    Is it because, the delta of ITM and ATM are higher, which affects the premium equally, in turn reduces the effect of vega on these options
    or
    the vega as such has higher impact on OTM options.(Like delta has higher impact on ATM and ITM). Kindly clarify.

    Thank u so much sir.
    Aishwarya

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      This is because with increase in Vega, there is a greater chance for the OTM to transition to ITM, hence they react quite rapidly.

  70. mahesh says:

    according to what you have stated here, % change in premium of NIFTY18MAR10200PE should be less than that for NIFTY18APR10200PE for similar change in IV.
    However on comparing changes in premium of these 2 options in current month I found quite THE contrary!!!!!!!

    premium of NIFTY18MAR10200PE FROM 27/02/18 TO 07/03/18 rose by 221.2% while premium of NIFTY18APR10200PE for similar period rose only by 132.4%

    Please explain where am I getting it wrong???

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The change in premium is applicable only from Vega perspective. However, you will have to look at all the geeks in perspective – the time to expiry (theta), delta (speed of mkts), and everything else which acts on the options. You cannot isolate just one geek.

  71. Aishwarya says:

    Hello sir,

    So far we have read, premium = intrinsic value + time value.
    The intrinsic value is how much money we would make provided we exercised the contract today. But practically, we cannot do this on everyday and we need to wait till expiry. So the above formula works only on the day of expiry.

    So, on all the other days,
    premium = (delta x change in underlying) + Time value + (vega x change in implied volatity)

    Of course, gamma is included in the above in the form of change in delta.

    I really cant express how grateful I am to you. All that I can do is to include you in my daily prayers. God bless you and your family.

    Thank you so much sir.
    Aishwarya

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Wow! Thanks for the very kind words, Aishwarya 🙂

      Yes, that equation sort of makes sense, but please do backtest for accuracy. By the way, time value should be deducted.

  72. Aishwarya says:

    Hello Sir,
    1)In one of the above queries, you have responded like this – “Absolutely, Vega for ATM is the highest. It is quite natural, as ATM options sit on the fence. It can swing either ways…so its kind of fickle and volatile. However, OTM and ITM have already taken sides and therefore the volatility is lower for these options.”
    But as per volatility smile, the IV is the lowest for ATM. Can you please clarify.
    2)To find out whether the volatility of nifty is high or low, can we compare the historical annual volatility with the VIX ??
    3)To find out whether the volatility of any stock is high or low, can we compare the historical annual volatility with the IV of the particular strike ??

    Thanks in advance Sir.
    Best Regards,
    Aishwarya

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) You are comparing the IV with Vega. Remember, Vega captures the change of premium with the change in vol
      2) Yes, you can. For a quick estimate, you can also compare the current day vol to historical vol
      3) Yes, as long as you are comparing this with the ATM strike, OTMs and ITMs can give you biased opinion 🙂

  73. Vivek Anand says:

    Hi Karthik… in the prevailing market where the volatility isn’t that high if, we sell call option at higher than 1SD the premium collected will be very low. Do you think it is a better idea to do a short startngle at far OTM option on last Friday before expiry? Say, for example selling call at 10800 and put of 10100 with Nifty spot being 10500.. this way I think we can pocket larger premium and also have some cushion from premium of call option if, market falls drastically and volatility increases as days left to expiry will be just 4 and theta will also act as a saviour to an extent.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yup, this works. Its just that the margins blocked will be way higher, but this also comes with a ‘certain’ amount of comfort. So margins blocked to returns generated may not make economic sense. It’s really up to you.

      Also, you may want to consider strikes lower than 10100 for the puts.

      • Vivek Anand says:

        Thanks a lot Karthik. Margin obviously is way higher but, for novice like me comfort is bigger ticker for now. Also, when you say strike lower than 10100 for puts you mean something like 10000 / 9900 correct (for present spot of 10,550 or so)?

        Again all your help and knowledge sharing is highly appreciated.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          I understand that, Vivek. You need to be comfortable with the position you hold, only then will you gain conviction to hold. Else the chance of messing up is quite high. Yes, I was referring to strikes lower than 10000 like 99900. Keep learning 🙂

  74. Kiran Raj says:

    ” This can be a bit overwhelming for newbie traders. It can be so overwhelming that they quickly rebrand the markets as ‘Casino’. So the next time you hear someone say such a thing about the markets, make sure you point them to Varsity ☺. ”

    Certainly… I have already directed few friends of mine to read Varsity, I have made 3 guys buy your Rupee tales. Awesome work .. seriously 🙂

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Hahah, thanks for that Kiran!

      Markets is chaotic from outside, buy quite systematic from inside 🙂

  75. Laukik says:

    Hi Karthik,
    Something strange happened today(31/05/2018), I was wondering if Volatility was a factor that the Premium went the other way around.

    So i was holding HDFCBANK CE 2140 Strike and at 3:00 pm
    HDFCBANK in Cash Market was trading at 2127.00 and the HDFCBANK18JUN2140CE at 46.00 ,
    in a matter of few minutes by 3:18 HDFCBANK shot up to 2160.00 , crossing my strike price ,so i anticipated by option premium to go beyond 60 ,with Gamma turning 0.5 , but there wasn’t much movement in the premium ,it just fluctuated around 46.

    Would be happy to understand why this happened?
    I don’t see an option here to upload a screenshot to help you understand my point.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Laukik, this was literally 15 mins to expiry. YOur option was ITM by 20 Rupees, but according to you it was 46, so even at 15 mins to expiry, you had an awesome premium on your premium 🙂

      • Laukik says:

        Hi Karthik,
        But this was June Series Call option i was holding which still has another 4 weeks left to Expire.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Ah, I see. Sorry, I thought this was May expiry. In this case, the premium would have been limited by liquidity and vega.

  76. Mangesh Bhagwat says:

    Hi Sir,
    I have gone through the volatility chapters my question is using the STDEV formula can we calculate the range for one single day for nifty, any indices or a underlying for eg any stock if yes pls explain.

  77. Mayank Rathore says:

    Dear Karthik,

    Dude I am really big fan of u..!! Master blaster….Man 😉 Pro 🙂
    Having query regarding volatility :
    As per today’s 28-Aug-18 data from NSE site Maruti suzuki’s Previous Day(27th Aug) Futures Volatility is 0.0119, Current Day Futures Daily Volatility 0.0125 and Futures Annualised Volatility is 0.238. i.e. current volatility is almost half of annualised volatility.
    as i have read in some module that higher the volatility, higher the premium and premium will cools off followed by volatility cools offff.
    can we consider that lower the volatility is lower/cheap price of any counter [maruti in this case] ?
    can we look up move in maruti as per annualised volatility?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for the kind words, Mayank 🙂

      Yes, you can consider trading volatility either ways. But, if you are looking at buying options due to low vol, then remember you are also moving against the time decay factor, which you may have to avoid.

      • Mayank Rathore says:

        Thanks brother…!!!
        now take maruti as example…
        For sep month expiry having much time and time decay shudnt effect that much i think and can buy call option,?

        Another view if we consider time decay …so shud we make bull put spread/ bull call spread or can we sell naked put to eat time decay?

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Yes, when there is ample time to expiry, you can think of buying an option. You can take any position which suits your directional point of view. Generally speaking, if you are right on the direction, the naked option gives you maximum bang for your buck 🙂

  78. arun says:

    It is being said that from 1st Oct. derivative market timings will be increased till 11:55pm.
    But derivatives are based on underlying that is equity market, so how derivatives will be traded if spot market is close.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      There is no official circular on this yet, Arun. For this reason, I’m assuming the price won’t deviate much from the spot. However, in the case of an overnight news on the stock, the derivative market will take lead and the stock would catch up at the opening.

  79. arun says:

    Please check whether my understanding is correct with volatility –

    1.If we calculate daily volatility(SD) of any stock based on historic 1 year data let say we got 3%, so meaning is, it can either go up by 3% or can go down by 3% on next day. We have to predict the stock direction based on our analysis, it can be technical analysis lke patterns,Prior trend,S&R.

    Now Question –
    2.If we see 24th Aug. example’s option chain screenshot, all ITM Put options premium increased and What is happen to put OTM (since screenshot is not visible) with respect to volatility and Delta. Can you please explain in detail.

    Thank You.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Yes, thats right
      2) This is because of less time to expiry. As you move closer to expiry, ITM/ATM options turn more sensitive to than OTM options.

  80. omkar says:

    but i just dont get it …does it make sense to buy such far out of the money(1000 to 1200 points away) strikes and if not why people buys it? thnx….

  81. Harsh Singh says:

    Dear Karthik first of all we’re grateful to you of teaching one of toughest things in market- Options in a layman terms & given us wisdom more than what we deserved. Although I’m physics Ph.d students so mathematics isn’t big deal but still your explanation had given more deep insight. I’m also a client of zerodha from last one year. My few questions are as follows
    1) From last few chapters especially theta & volatility, does it mean that we should not be a buyers of options at6 all? Or if we buy then kindly when & at what favorable conditions.
    2) Since options sellers required huge margin, it’s often touted in market as big players cup of tea while mostly retailers are buyers? Is it true to this rumours ?
    3)Zerodha by far till now has been very great experience in investing & trading but there’s sometimes rarely little problem arises in options trading as technical glitches don’t show the premium movement. How to deal if such situations?

    Thanks a lot

    …Your kindness

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Not really, Harsh. Buying options really depend on the situation. A lot of time to expiry, momentum in the stock expected, then why not? However, option sellers, especially deep OTM have a better chance to retain the premium

      2) The margins required is similar to that of futures, and as you may know many retain participants trade futures. So this is baseless 🙂

      3) This is probably because there is no liquidity, not a technical glitch 🙂

      • Harsh Singh says:

        Thanks a lot Karthikji for your kind reply.
        Only few more query plz regarding qestion no.2 above…
        1) Actually I read somewhere probably an article in rediff that 80% of traders In India trade in options & remaining in Futures & Intraday, although in that amount also buyers are more than sellers which points to retailers participation.
        2) Even Sebi also raised red flags last year that the ratio of India’s Derivatives to Cash segments is one of highest in the world. The number reads 14 next only to Korea. Which again points to retailers participation in buying options or futures segments. In that report if my memory serves well then it’s been mentioned that Options sellers are mostly HNI’s ?
        It’s due to above mentioned reason options buying seems more depressing than sellers because as you taught us has natural statistical edge…
        How much truth to above query.
        Kindly sorry for long query again…

        Your kindness

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          1) Yes, I’d kind of agree. There are more people trading options than futures
          2) I remember that number, but I think its flawed because the derivative volumes are notional. But yeah, option selling requires higher margin, probably that makes one believe that option writing is for HNI.

  82. Ron Kalra says:

    Dear Karthik,
    Sorry to bother you again with my not so sensible questions. But I would appreciate if you can please let me know the following.
    1. Do we have to calculate HV and IV on our own before making a trade ? Or is it readily available in the Zerodha platforms ?
    2. Does Zerodha offer charts of HV and IV ( of all indexes and individual stock’s options ) in their softwares ? or do we have to work with the number’s provided for HV and IV.
    3. How important is it for us to look at the HV and IV chart before making a decision to buy or sell ? or is it possible to make our option strategies decision based on the numbers available on HV & IV ?

    Thank you once again Sir !

  83. ron kalra says:

    Dear Karthik
    Is volatility measured per day ?Not sure how to put my question but let me try to ask you with an example.

    Let’s say I have the India VIX chart open ( live ) for 5 mins chart and I want to short option based on the fact that volatility is high ( it can be Nifty or any other securities ). Do you think it makes any sense to trade volatility on a smaller time frame or is it only good on higher time frame ?

    Thank you

  84. shyam says:

    Hi kartik sir,

    I recall you telling that when volatility increases nifty falls as both have inverse relationship. Today I have observed that while vix was rising even nifty was rising. Now how do we interpret this?

    Rgds,
    Shyam

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Its not always the case, Shyam. Most often when volatility increases the fear is high and therefore Nifty falls. However, there could be instances when Nifty marginally increases and vol also increases.

  85. Chander Bhatia says:

    Dear Karthik,

    1) Where can I get a consolidated graph of Historic Volatility,Implied Volatility and Price data for a stock or Index?Or is there a way to get this consolidated data?

    2) We say that when Implied Volatility increases then the option prices also increase. I would like to understand whether it is Call option or Put option whose price will increase. This will help to take decision whether call needs to be shorted or Put?

    Regards
    Chander

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Maybe you should check with Sensibull if they have this or intend to put this up anytime soon

      2) With the increase in implied volatility, the premium of both call and put option increases.

  86. GD Nayak says:

    Dear karthik Sir
    There are 2 implied volatility (call side and put side for same strike price).
    How should do 1 implied volatility (for analysis)?
    I think we should find out the average of implied volatility.
    Please reply me.

    I know it is difficult to me write english please ignore if I don’t write english properly because I’m familiar with hindi and also don’t understand english properly but your expression is so good so I read your articles 👍

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Nayak, yes, ideally for a single strike, the IV should be common across both CE and PE. However, this varies because of the demand and supply situation.

      • GD Nayak says:

        Thank you sir,

        Can you talk in hindi ?
        It will useful for my other query.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          I can understand but speaking in Hindi is quite bad 🙂

          • GD Nayak says:

            To mai ab se agli bar aapko apne query hindi me puchhunga.

            Aap jitna ho ske pls hindi me ans. Krna☺️

            Uske baad n ho paye to english me dena.
            It will helpful for me to understand all your priceless knowledge and thank u for answering me.

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            Acha, mai koshish kar than hoon 🙂

  87. Karthik Kaushal says:

    Sir, what is the effect of Vega on premiums on the expiry day(intraday)…is it completely negligible?

  88. Bama Dutta says:

    Just awesome!!!!

  89. Sanjeev Gupta says:

    I have recently started trading in options. However still not clear about option writing. I can’t see any way on zerodha kite platform how I can create / write an option . In practice Is it same as selling an option be it call or put.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Its quite straight forward, Sanjeev. Click on the option you want to sell and click ‘Sell’ and hit enter, with this, you would have sold/written an option.

      • Sanjeev Gupta says:

        Hi Karthik , Thanks for a quick reply , so what you are telling me is that writing an option is basically same as selling an option . However my query is bit more detailed . When we select any option in the watchlist we get already listed options at various strike rates with CE / PE option. Who creates these options at different strike rates ? let’s say Infy options are available upto strikes of 960 ( as on 2nd feb , 11:20 am ) but I want to create an CE/PE option at strike of 980 , so can I do that as a individual trader . If not who creates these options in the system ?

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Yes, Sanjeev both writing and selling refer to the same thing. The strikes are dynamically created by the exchanges and vary based on the movement in the stock price.

  90. Jasdeep singh says:

    How to find implied volatility is increased or decreased?

  91. Srikrishna Rowthu says:

    Hi Karthik,

    If an index (or) a stock price value is increasing and also if volatility is increasing, then it does make sense that the premiums can be increased, since there is a high probability that the Call Option OTM options tend to become ITM soon rather than later.

    However, when the same price value is decreasing and the volatility is increasing, in such a case, the Call Option ITM option might become ATM (or) OTM options soon. So, in this case , if you take any particular strike, my thinking is the premiums should decrease.

    But, instead of decreasing, whenever the Volatility is increasing (so as Vega), the option premiums are increasing irrespective of the direction. So, why is the Black & Scholes algorithm designed in this way? Any particular point I am missing here?

    Thanks
    Srikrishna

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Agreed to some extent, but then the direction of the market is an output of human judgment. Volatility and its impact on option premium is the same across both CE and PE. Think about it, an increase in vol means more change for the options to transition from OTM to ATM.

      • Srikrishna Rowthu says:

        Agree with this “the direction of the market is an output of human judgment” and also with this to some extent “an increase in vol means more change for the options to transition from OTM to ATM” but there is an equal chance that “an increase in vol means more chance for the options to transition from ITM to OTM” even.

        However, as you mentioned earlier, the direction is a human judgement, and since it’s not possible to act on the same in different ways, they would have generalized the premium increase or decrease when volatility increases or decreases respectively.

        But, I got , what you were trying to explain. Thankyou:)

        Thanks
        Srikrishna

  92. Srikrishna Rowthu says:

    Hi Karthik,

    When I google about “India VIX” , I see that this statement below:
    “A negative correlation between India VIX and Nifty, VIX tends to drop when Nifty goes up, and vice versa.”

    I didn’t clearly understand this stmt. How is “Nifty going up” and Volatility drop has a relation? Similarly when “Nifty going down”, how is this related to “Volatility increasing”.

    Thanks
    Srikrishna

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      They tend to compare the Nifty Index with India ViX. ViX is also called a fear index, goes up when fear in the market shoots up or in other words, the markets go down. Hence the -ve correlation.

      • Srikrishna Rowthu says:

        But since “India VIX” is related to volatility and volatility exists in both the directions of the market. So, when Nifty goes up, why is volatility index “India VIX” decreasing?
        I hope you got my point.

        Thanks
        Srikrishna

  93. Srikrishna Rowthu says:

    Hi Karthik,

    I have seen a study “Historical Volatility” in Kite. Is this study different from what we are discussing here?
    The values shown using this study differs from that in nseindia.com .
    If they are different, can you explain the difference. Thanks in advance.

    Thanks
    Srikrishna

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I need to check that particular study, Srikrishna.

      • Srikrishna Rowthu says:

        And also please do check
        1) “Standard Deviation” study available in Kite. Is this same as what we discussed earlier?
        2) Above this doubt, I have asked one about “India VIX”, plz clarify that too.

        Thanks
        Srikrishna

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          1) Std Deviation is the same
          2) Guess I had clarified about India ViX. Can you repost in case I missed answering it? Thanks.

  94. Dipen says:

    Typo… It should be “movement” and not “moment” in the line-
    “This means, irrespective of the move in the underlying the moment in the option premium will be very restrictive.”

  95. Parvathy says:

    Hi,
    I transferred 23k to my zerodha account and bought shares worth Rs 22,988. Now my withdrawal balance is showing negative 24.85. Why is it so? Please explain.

  96. VINOD KUMAR V says:

    Hi,
    Where Can I get Historical IV of nifty options for each strike price.
    NSE option history does not have this data.
    Thanks,
    Vinod.

  97. Srinathjayanna says:

    Sir till Vega learning was going smoothly here everything become hard to understand.
    1.HV and AV are the same or
    2.HV and India vix are same.If not were to get historical volatility.
    3If I have to buy 12000ce should we compare IV of this strike with HV or India vix.
    4.How important is it to consider IV of individual strikes.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) HV = Historical Volatility, AV = ?
      2) No, HV is the realised volatility of today (which becomes historical t’row). India ViX is the market’s expectation of realized volatility
      3) India ViX is fine
      4) It does make a difference, so I’d suggest you do.

  98. Srinathjayanna says:

    Av=annualised volatility is HV and AV are same.If not. As you said HV is the realised volatility of today where will we get HV for today.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The historical volatility, when calculated on a daily basis and expressed in a yearly format becomes annualized volatility.

      • Srinathjayanna says:

        India vix is currently at 26 is it for current may expiry or yearly expectation what does this number signifies.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          This is the expected volatility for the month of May, expressed on an annualised basis.

  99. CHIDAMBARAM V says:

    hi Sir,
    You have explained that “The Vega of an option measures the rate of change of option’s value (premium) with every percentage change in volatility ” which means change in premium w.r.t change in volatility in underlying is captured by Vega.

    But towards the end of this chapter you have also mentioned that ‘With increase in volatility, the Vega of an option increases (irrespective of calls and puts), and with increase in Vega, the option premium tends to increase’.

    My doubt is regarding “With increase in volatility, the Vega of an option increases “- Does Vega itself changes with change in volatility or Vega just capture the premium change w.r.t volatility change in underlying?

  100. Keerthan Reddy says:

    Sir,
    In 24th August 2015 practical example, It has been clearly mentioned that Deep Otm options have 0 delta and hence, Thought underlying decreased, The premium increased because of Volatality increased.
    In “Trading Options greeks” book of Dan Passarelli – It has been mentioned that with increase in Volatality – Delta of Otm options increase, Delta of Itm options decrease.
    Sir the above two are contradictory. Can you please clarify Sir ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Deep OTM have ‘near 0’, delta. It usually hits a low, non-zero number and stays there until the stock moves. With the increase in volatility, the premium of both call and put increases, implying the increase in the delta. I think what the author means is that the increase in OTM delta is higher than the increase in ITM delta.

  101. Harsh Singh says:

    Dear Karthikji Post elections results although nifty IV falls to normal for call options around value of 11 for 1-2 strikes from spot but Put options had huge unequal values. The IV of puts 1-2 or even 3 strikes from Nifty spot is having IV values 16 to 17 for weekly options & same for monthly too. Although due to recent high volatility the annualised volatility is now at approx 22.5. I saw this in nse sites. 1)Why this huge imbalance between puts and calls ??
    2)What this indicates & can one sell put options with some OTM hedge in hope of volatility getting cool down ??
    3)NSE websites calculates IV & options price etc on 10% interest rates(written on bottom) whilst RBI 91 days interest rates as u’d recommended us is little above 6%. Which one to refer then ?? Will it makes any difference
    Thanking you for giving your kind time 🙂

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) The IV of PE and CE is never the same (although it is intuitive to think so) because of the underlying street sentiment and therefore the demand-supply situation for each strike
      2) Yup, if you think the volatility will cool off, then it does make sense to buy options. By hedging, however, you are increasing the cost of the trade
      3) I’d suggest you take the NSE’s value

  102. sahil swaroop says:

    sir, I have to finish 4 more remaining chapters but can’t wait to appreciate the fact that u have explained the topics with such clarity and even while recalling the topics from previous chapters u go on to write almost a paragraph to remind the topics, again and again, thanks for putting in this much effort for writing the material

  103. Srinathjayanna says:

    Sir as you mentioned for each % of change in volatility options Vega will gain or lose in theoretical value.
    Yesterday markets gained 165points so 11600pe lost 32rs in its premium value but volatility has been increased for this option.let’s say Vega was 9.6 will this value is gain for this option premium because of increase in volatility.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The increase/decrease in premium is not just about the volatility. The delta too has an impact. Think of it as multiple forces being exerted on an object at the same time. The end result will depend on which of these forces comes out as the strongest.

      • Srinathjayanna says:

        Ohh I have not asked the question properly here is my exact question sir.
        On Friday 31/5 spot closed at 11922.
        11800pe
        premium 249
        Expiry 27/6
        IV 8.96
        Delta 0.738
        Theta -3.315
        Vega 9.916
        Next day on Monday market had a strong upmove of 165points at the end of the day 11800pe premium was closed at 382.
        165*0.738delta=121.77 lost in its premium value along with -3.315 theta decay.
        IV from 8.96 increased to 9.82 so for increase in volatility Vega of this option 9.916 will it get gained for this option premium.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          165*0.738 = 121
          121+249 = 414

          I guess, you are concerned about the actual premium value which is 382 and not 414. This deficit is attributable to both time value and the reduction in volatility.

          • Srinathjayanna says:

            Sir but here the volatility of 11800ce has increased from 8.96 to 9.82 with increase in voltality and strong up move in index of 165 points both delta and Vega Should take the premium higher than what it is at 382.

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            Can you double check this? Because when the price increases, the volatility usually drops.

  104. Bala says:

    Hi sir, on 23rd may, nifty moved up 125 points approx and it’s in 11800 levels.. But the premium for 12000CE was reduced 8.5% and one telegram Grp admin stated that it is because of volatility. If volatility increases then premium should increase right? How is this possible? NIFTY moved up hence CE premium should go up buy it reduced on the same day. Not only this sir, I’ve seen a stock moving up daily without any decline, let’s say it’s premium for a random strike is 200rs… the underlying is increasing after 2 days premium is 250rs.. after 5 days the underlying still moves upwards but premium comes back to 200rs again. How is this possible because effect of theta is not possible for this huge difference.

  105. Pradeep says:

    Just finished the volatility module. Clearly, the module was written when there used to be month long option series. In changed scenario of week long option series, how to trade using volatility strategies? Please suggest adaptations/modifications.

  106. Harsh Singh says:

    Good morning Dear Karthikji,

    I’ve few questions about weekly Nifty/BankNifty options… although in varsity whatever u taught us on Nifty examples are the MONTHLY OPTIONS one as it was that only those days.
    1)For weekly options how should we view volatility & theta. For eg at the beginning of 1st two weeks of months does Volatility will have effect like blue line of graph in two successive weekly options & same volatility will have red line effect at the end of last week expiry of Nifty ??
    2)Or does theta & volatility is functioning different for monthly & weekly options seperately ??
    3)If suppose I want to initiate Call Ratio Backspread or Bear Call ladder when volatility is low, then is it good in 1st two weeks or last week or it’ll be same across all four weeks ??
    Kindly reply all my concern query as per your wise opinion & thanking u for giving ur valuable time 🙂

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Yes, everything remains the same. The timelines shrink.
      2) No change, they function the same
      3) If the position is net long, then its better to initiate in the first half, else its better to wait till the 2nd half

  107. RAHUL says:

    why are there bid and ask quotes in option if the premium is to be decided through a formula and not by the market participants

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The fair price of the premium is derived from the Black & Scholes option pricing model. However, the premium gets traded above or below the fair price based on the demand-supply of the strike. Think of it as the real estate premium set by the government and the actual price that gets traded in the market.

  108. vidit d says:

    Can you provide any excel or any calculation to find realized volatility? Also volatility studies are majorly for option writers and not for buyers?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Its for both. Realized volatility is nothing but historical volatility. It can be calculated by using the ‘=STDEV()’, function in excel.

  109. AUSTIN says:

    The price of an option shown in kite is the output of Black & Scholes or last traded price? If last traded price then how we can know the fair price? Who determines the volatality, the big players, I mean sellers of options?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The price that you see on Kite if from the exchange, which is market-driven. So yeah, its the last traded price. Volatility, price and everything else is determined collectively by the market and not any single group of operators.

  110. equity blues says:

    thanks for the advice

  111. Abhishek says:

    Hi Sir,

    So if volatility suddenly increases then can change in premium be more than what the old delta is saying?

  112. Murthhy says:

    Dear Karthik,

    The following “Double quotes” ones in each point below seems confusing and contradicting.
    Can you please clarify?

    1) Implied Volatility represents the “market participants expectation” of volatility
    2) “India VIX represents the implied volatility” over the next 30 days period

    On 24th August the volatility of Indian markets shot up by 64%. “This increase in volatility was totally unexpected by the market participants”

    If India VIX is the market participant’s expectation, why on 24th August was unexpected by the market participants?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      India ViX is derived from the implied volatility and therefore its a proxy for implied volatility, but not the same thing 🙂

  113. Murthhy says:

    Thank you.

    One important ( for me 🙂 ) question.
    How this gap up or gap down of stocks and indices (Nifty/BankNifty) are calculated? How do we know if tomorrow it will be gap up or gap down?

    Also you shared Zerodha Pulse for news but this is not effective. How do we know news about particular stocks or indices where the impact is more for either increase or decrease in price

    If you can share definitive info on the news would be really helpful

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Gaps can be calculated based on the previous close and today’s open. You’ll never know when gaps will be formed, depends on the overnight news flow. You will have to track the stocks specific news to get a sense of how the gaps form.

  114. Samip says:

    Hello Karthik
    The content provided is really well. Can you suggest some of the best books to go through for options trading?

  115. Sachin says:

    Hi Karthik,

    I have a query on a comment by Gurmukh on 16th Dec 2016.

    Crux of his comment is – an OTM PE’s premium decreased when nifty lost few points. Time to expiry isnt clear, but as per the greeks that time, premium should have been down by 11, but in reality, it got reduced by 7 points. His assessment of the situation and calculations look correct.

    In response to this you point to – http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/portfolio/technically/when-options-strike/article7596687.ece. Though this link is valid, but it’s subscription only link.

    Can you share your analysis of this or similar scenario?

    Regards,
    -Sachin

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Sachin, what it really means is that the premium depends on the volatility as well. If the volatility decreases the premium too reduces and vice versa. You can see this in the markets today….mkts is up about a per cent, but the call options are losing money.

  116. Amit Kumar Ghosh says:

    Fix the link of Whitepaper.

  117. Debasis Jana says:

    Sir whitepaper link is not working. Quote the content from above.

    “You may have heard or noticed India VIX on NSE website, India VIX is the official ‘Implied Volatility’ index that one can track. India VIX is computed based on a mathematical formula, here is a whitepaper which explains how India VIX is calculated –”

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Ah, you need to check with the exchange for this. They may have moved it to another location.

  118. Aravinth kalaiselvan says:

    “By now everyone remotely connected with the stock market would know that on 24th August 2015, the Indian markets declined close to 5.92% making it one of the worse single-day declines in the history of Indian stock markets.” Compared to what’s happening now, 5.92% doesn’t look worst LOL.

  119. Tarun says:

    Hi Karthik,

    You said above “So if you are wondering why your long options are not working favorably in a highly volatile environment, make sure you look at the time to expiry” what does it mean?
    Is this because of the higher premium in a highly volatile market we should not go long on options ? or is there any other reason for this?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Time to expiry, volatility, and market direction, they all go hand in hand Tarun. They all act in their own way and exert their force on the option premium.

  120. Ishan says:

    Hello Karthik,
    I am an absolute newbie who’s trying to get his baseline set before venturing into trading
    Just finished reading this chapter on vega and have a small doubt. You’ve mentioned this example of NIFTY options 24th August 2015
    To quote you
    “” Typically ‘in the money’ options (as on 24th Aug, all strike below 8600) tend to have noticeable Delta, therefore all their premiums declined with the decline in the underlying.
    ‘Out of the money’ options usually have a very low delta like 0.1 or lower. This means, irrespective of the move in the underlying the moment in the option premium will be very restrictive. As on August 24th, all options above 8600 were ‘out of the money’ options with low delta values. Hence irrespective of the massive fall in the market, these call options did not lose much premium value.””

    Since the CNX NIFTY closed at 7809 ( after a fall of ~ 490 points) shouldn’t all the Call options above 7800 ( or above 8299 – previous closing ) be OTM?
    If yes then why the selective effect of vega on the CE options above 8650 ?? since all the OTM options tend to have a delta close to 0 including the ones between 7800 and 8600.
    Thanks and apologies in advance for my doubt may stem from absolute naivity..

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      If Nifty closes @7809, then all call strikes above 7800 will be worthless or OTM (except for the 7800 CE, which will have a marginal value of 9). Very deep OTM reacts to changes in vega, that’s how options behave 🙂

  121. Ishan says:

    Thank you for the prompt response. Also as soon as I read the first topic ( = volatility smile ) of the next chapter, my doubt was explained …..
    Thanks for such comprehensible texts!!

  122. Akash says:

    Sir
    The Whitepaper mentioned for VIX no longer exists on NSE’s website. From where now we can have calculation of VIX ?

    Thanks

  123. Akash says:

    Sir
    The incidence of 24th Aug 2015in the Nifty options, it seems rather than the underlying, it is the Greek (Vega here) that is controlling the options premium to a large extent. In fact, the options premium of OTM are moving adversely to the direction of movement of Nifty. Does this imply that derivatives have little to do with the movement of underlying and the options Greeks become the deciding factors ?
    Thanks

  124. Rajendran S says:

    Please Update the India VIX white paper URL to http://www1.nseindia.com/content/indices/white_paper_IndiaVIX.pdf
    Current URL broken

  125. Siddhesh says:

    I wish to enquire about an aspect. As you’ve discussed, there are 4 option greeks which decide premium value in real time.
    But if we think in general, is it right to say that at the end of day, what decides derivative prices is supply-demand relation.
    The reason I’m asking this is because suppose we have some greek values in hand and rough market idea. This would lead to some inference. But with this knowledge in-hand, at ground level, what if people take a foresight and do something else. Then can we say that the option greeks and entire pricing model has failed us?? (Please answer)

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, demand and supply play and important role in option pricing and to some extent, that is captured in the delta of the stock.

  126. ROHAN BATHRE says:

    hello sir
    i want to know where i see change in volatility any site which you recommend

  127. Bibin Venugopal says:

    Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, Django Unchained etc
    Thanks for the titles, do you have more? (Just kidding)

    You are doing a wonderful job in this course, thanks from my side behalf of all readers.

  128. Ragav says:

    Assuming the historical vol of HUL is at 62% for previous 1 year.
    Is Implied volatility calculated and reflected for Spot or only for options ?

    1. Current Spot is at 1975 , and annual Vol is at 62% So seeing the IV for ATM CE is around 33% and PE at 37% does this say IV is lower ?

    2. Only 2400 CE and 1600 PE has a 60% IV , so is it safe to assume and write these option, as these strikes has a Sd or Vol of 60% ?

    3. If I need to select strikes based on my SD or IV than would 2400Ce be the right candidate here ( just for assumption) , as historical VOL for HUL is at 60%.

    Not sure if I have missed anything on this.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Historical is for the spot, IV is for options. Although not very clean, you can compare these two to get a perspective of the volatility
      2) Not the PE, but CE maybe 🙂
      3) Yup

  129. raj says:

    Hi Karthik

    is there any way we can find historical and average Implied volatility for particular stock options? I guess India Vix is for the broader market but if I am thinking of writing an option then can I find relevant historical data of implied volatility of a specific stock?

  130. Ragaav says:

    Thank you for the update. Please throw some light on the following , Company A’s Historical volatility is at 40% so based on this premise

    1. Logically then for Ex : If Comp A’s OTM CE / PE has a IV of 60 % and both has a premium of 10 Rs, does this imply that based on its IV, the premiums has a higher chance to fluctuate at 60% from current premium 10 rs (based on the underlying).

    2. If all else remains same and I need to Sell ( Write) OTM PE/ CE strikes based on only based on IV than how does one interpret IV of 60 or an IV of 20 for an OTM what difference does it make.

    3. Does higher IV strikes have a higher premiums ? If yes, I can choose to write only higher IV strikes at start of the expiry and wait for theta to work.

    I’m tryin to interpret IV better from a different angle.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Yes, and also implies that the premium of 10 could be high
      2) IV of 60 is high, and hence the associated premium. You need to look at selling opportunities. IV of 20 is low, and hence the associated premium. You need to look at buying opportunities.
      3) Yes

  131. Ragav says:

    Thanks for the update.

  132. Aditya says:

    Hi,

    So in the example above of 24th Aug 2015, understand the impact of vega keeps premium of OTM calls +ve. However these would be LTPs. My question is shouldn’t the fall show up in the bid/ask spread. Which is more driven by live trader wanted to bid for a call of 8900 where the different in Bid ask if hardly 0.20 bps.

    One would expect more like what we see in 9050CE bid/ask. Where now the bidder would have significantly lowered his bid levels to the ask levels (which would still be around the LTP lvls). Shouldn’t that be the case. Logically why is someone still ready to purchase a call of 8900CE at such elevated levels ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, eventually all of these factor into the order book and show up on the bid-ask spread. The reason why ppl buy is they have the exact opposite reasoning of a seller, remember different opinions is what makes a market 🙂

  133. Gokul says:

    Hi sir,

    Does the option premium depends only on option greeks? or does it has any relationship with demand and supply?
    Why there was no IV on banknifty on 18-06-2020 (weekly expiry) for any of the strike?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The demand and supply have its own influence on the premium, Gokul, although the prime drivers are the greeks.

  134. ANKIT says:

    hi karthik ,
    have u written article on volatility skew or volatility smile .
    where can i check it on real time basis
    any link or source plz provide

  135. ANKIT says:

    hi karthik .
    i want to know when big players or big institution make their position in nifty and bank nifty options whether selling or buying option (weekly option ) .so it can reflect in open interest and change in open interest .
    is it on friday .monday .tuesday wed or thursday according to ur expereince in the market .
    when they take entry and exit .probality kaha zyada hoti h

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      No idea about that, and I don’t think weekday matters. They set up trades based on when the opportunities come by.

  136. ANKIT says:

    hi karthik.
    can u suggest best books on
    1.options selling
    2.hedging of option selling like big players and big institutions do .

  137. ANKIT says:

    hi karthik
    suppose i m bullish on stock like sbi in 5 days time in second half of month .
    i have created ratio spread
    buy ce 180
    sold ce 200
    max profit 50000 suppose
    ideally at wat profit percentage we should close are position .

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Ankit, ideally it should be 100% upon expiry. But if you want to exit before that, then that depends on your risk and reward expectations and the associated market condition.

  138. Vinayak says:

    Sir,
    I am not able to understand why we have different IVs for same underlying asset, same expiry, same events( May be Corp Actions, RBI policies OR else)..
    kindly explain why do we have different IVs?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      IV is different for different strikes. Each strike is a different option, hence different parameters work differently on these strikes, therefore different IV.

  139. udbhav says:

    Similarly, when volatility increases, the stock/index price starts swinging heavily. To put this in perspective, imagine a stock is trading at Rs.100, with increase in volatility, the stock can start moving anywhere between 90 and 110. So when the stock hits 90, all PUT option writers start sweating as the Put options now stand a good chance of expiring in the money. Similarly, when the stock hits 110, all CALL option writers would start panicking as all the Call options now stand a good chance of expiring in the money.

    How did you say that Put and Call options have good chance to expire ITM??? Please elaborate.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      With increased volatility, the chance of the stock moving all over the place increases, this means there is an increased chance for both CE and PE to expire ITM. This is what I mean by that 🙂

  140. daksh gupta says:

    why does VEGA affects OTM options more in terms of premium? as you said in last case study

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Higher the time to expiry, higher is the chance for the option to swing either way. Hence vega has a higher effect.

  141. daksh gupta says:

    why VEGA affects OTM CE more in terms of premium ???

  142. Koushik says:

    Sir
    Is it true that SEBI is removing leverage from 1st of December.

  143. rajat pahuja says:

    hello sir,
    sir the stated example above , with increase in volatility the price of OTM CE shot up albeit the underlying price falls.
    Is this once a blue moon thing or a general phenomena ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      No, this happens whenever there is an increase in volatility, which can happen every now and them.

  144. rajat pahuja says:

    hello sir ,
    In this chapter we learned that with increase in volatility premium also increases.
    sir which volatility are we talking of ? historic or implied ?

  145. Selva says:

    Vega increases alright but why did the CE premium increase. If premium increase that means someone is willing to buy the option at that price, why would someone buy a CE at a high price when the spot is falling drastically. Shouldn’t the PE option premium increase at such situations?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      why would someone buy a CE at a high price —- > because they expect it to reverse and go higher. Remember, different opinions are what makes the market 🙂

  146. koushik says:

    Sir ,
    1.Like you said in nifty option IV 20 or below is low IV and 30 or above is high in IV .how can we know highs and lows for any other stocks or other indices like bank nifty.
    2. when we put a MIS ,BO and CO orders we get to sell options for not more 20,000 . now due to new SEBI rules do we need to pay whole margin amount like 1,40,000 to do options writing .please explain .

    thank you .

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) You can calculate the historical vol, compare it to current IV and get a sense of how the current volatility is placed
      2) Yes, complete upfront margin i.e. SPAN+Exposure is required

  147. koushik says:

    thank you sir .

  148. Aditya Vikram says:

    Hi Karthik,
    1) How is the Implied volatility calculated? Can we learn how to calculate that, or is it just a bit too complex ?
    2) Well if it is hard to calculate IV, lets say I use the IVs given in Sensibull or in NSE date and compare it with historical volatility that you’ve taught in one of the modules.. how do I make an apple to apple comparison? The IVs given in NSE are annualized,right? and they are the deviation from which mean exactly? the mean of the whole year’s return? Let’s say I have to compare last 10 days to expiry historic volatility to IV.. how do I go about doing it?

    Thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Its quite complicated math 🙂
      2) YOu cant, hence it is considered ‘quick and dirty’ comparison
      3) Yes, these are all annual numbers. If you are looking at 10-year historical vol number, then you will have to scale it down to yearly by dividing the 10 year number by square root of time i.e. 365 days.

  149. koushik says:

    sir,
    Does zerodha charge on converting nrml order to mis and again on end of trading session mis order to nrml ?
    thank you.

  150. abhinash says:

    while trading in options do we have to pay 20rs ( brokerage charges) for both buying and selling or 20rs for buying and again 20rs for squaring off (selling).

  151. koushik says:

    sir ,
    please do explain this in detail “1) You can calculate the historical vol, compare it to current IV and get a sense of how the current volatility is placed.”
    thank you .

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Meaning, you can see what the historical volatility for the underlying has been (easy to calculate on excel), compare it with today’s IV and that should give you a rough perspective of where the volatility is. For example, if for a stock, historical vol is 22% and ViX is 35%, then I know today’s volatility is high. However, you need to remember that this is only a rough estimate.

  152. manish surve says:

    hello karthik
    how do we come to know that for a particular strike price the iv given on option chain is on higher side or lower side.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      YOu will have to compare it with the underlying’s historical volatility, this will give you a rough estimate.

  153. MARU SANDIP KANTILAL says:

    “‘With increase in volatility, the Vega of an option increases (irrespective of calls and puts), and with increase in Vega, the option premium tends to increase. On 24th August the volatility of Indian markets shot up by 64%. This increase in volatility was totally unexpected by the market participants. With the increase in volatility, the Vega of all options increases, thereby their respective premiums also increased. The effect of Vega is particularly high for ‘Out of the money’ options. So on one hand the low delta value of ‘out of the money’ call options prevented the option premiums from declining while on the other hand, high Vega value increased the option premium for these out of the money options.”
    Dear Karthik,
    what does this means in perspective of market participants… i mean its just the delta and vega that played a role or more of call writing has change the premium..?
    i am totally newbie, so parden my silly query..
    sandip maru

  154. Vaishakh says:

    Happy Teachers Day, sir.
    I get to learn lot of things from you and every minute spent in Varsity is amazing. You inspire us. God bless you with happyness and wealth

  155. Chetanya Nagpal says:

    hi kartik, so can we just take india vix and convert it into 1 day for getting range in nifty while trading intraday?

  156. Mihir says:

    The white paper link can be updated here as it shows page not found.

  157. Sunil says:

    Hi Karhtik,
    What is the relation between IndiaVIX and IV of Bank Nifty? I have observed that during intraday trading, option prices are fluctuating due to volatility.
    I have seen IndiaVIX fluctuating. Where can we observe real time for IV of Bank Nifty ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      India ViX is a proxy for the market’s implied volatility. Not sure if real-time IV is available anywhere, maybe you should check Sensibull.

  158. Sunil says:

    In sensibull, intraday IV is not available . Only day wise is available . During intraday option trading, i am referring to India Vix to judge whether the option premium pricing is on higher side. Hope the thought process is correct.

  159. Sunil says:

    Thank you Karthik ! Your response( and that too so quick) is really of great help. :).

  160. Ganesh Patel says:

    Hi Karthik,

    while reading this chapter I looked at the nifty option chain at https://web.sensibull.com/option-chain?expiry=2020-10-29&tradingsymbol=NIFTY.

    Vega (The Vega of an option measures the rate of change of option’s value (premium) with every percentage change in volatility.) of ATM was the highest with making normal distribution pattern (decreased going toward OTM and ITM ), but the IV was not making any pattern (IV is not highest at ATM).

    are Delta, Gamma, and Market direction affecting IV? and how? can I conclude anything based on IV and Vega?

    Loving Varsity
    -Ganesh

  161. Ganesh Patel says:

    Hi Karthik,

    can you ask your IT team to make this comment text box as rich-text type so we can attach the images, pdfs, or text styling?

    it will help readers to frame there question better.

    Loving Varsity
    Thanks
    -Ganesh

  162. Ganesh Patel says:

    Hi Karthik,
    When you say IV was not the highest, what are you comparing it against?
    I was talking about IV at ATM with respect to ITM and OTM, but I got the answer in the next chapter (‘Volatility Smile’ :)).

    As you quoted in the next chapter theoretically IV should be the same for all stricks but in reality, it forms ‘Volatility smile’.

    why is that?

    Thanks
    -Ganesh

  163. Aarti says:

    Sir I was looking at Bank nifty and at a strike of 26500, the premium is 28.3Rs for CE in NSE option chain. Now if i plan to sell call option then premium receivable should be= 25×28.3=707.5Rs for 1 lot of bank nifty. But as per the Zerodha’s F&O margin calculator, the premium receivable is being shown as 916Rs at the very same time. So why such a vast difference is arising?

    Your response would be much appreciated!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Guessing the premium has increased. Data on NSE website is delayed, the data on the terminal is real-time.

  164. Aarti says:

    One more thing sir, if i have a stronger conviction then i can go ahead and short a ITM strike through selling CE. And so I as a call option seller should fear getting into deep ITM, right? And hope for reaching to ATM or OTM as soon as possible, is that correct?

    Am extremely sorry sir for asking such inane questions to you, but getting a little muddled, as studying all these things for the first time. I hope you will understand and not mind responding to my curious queries.
    Many thanks as always!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      That’s correct, Aarti. As a seller, your best outcome is when the ITM CE you’ve shorted transitions to OTM. And don’t worry about asking questions, ask as many as you want, till everything is cleared up for you 🙂

  165. koushik says:

    sir , when we do a spread ( like bull call or bear put ) it shows that increase or decrease in implied volatility effects the P&L (though underlying wasn’t very bullish or bearish) is it true .
    thank you .

  166. Vikram says:

    Sir can you make on step by step process on option writing with example

  167. Hetang Gohel says:

    Hey Kartik, could you explain the part where you said, ” MAYBE it’s a good idea to write options and collect the premiums at the start of the series when the premium is high”

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      That’s because, at the start of the series, the premium is high owing to a lot of time factor. If you identify the right strike, it makes sense to write it and collect the premium associated with it.

  168. Hetang Gohel says:

    Is it true that India vix and indexes are inversely proportional to each other?

  169. Hetang Gohel says:

    Hello Kartik, How can one benefit from the IV data present in option chain?

  170. Hetang Gohel says:

    ” MAYBE it’s a good idea to write options and collect the premiums at the start of the series when the premium is high” This is for the risk-takers right?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Depends on how you evaluate risk. While risk takers would right say 3SD away, risk-takers may want to write 1.5SD away.

  171. Kiran says:

    What is the difference between volatality we see on equity derivatives on nse website and IV on options chai . I saw for indusindbk share, it was 4.7 on equity derivatives and 75 on option chai .
    Please explain
    Thank you.

  172. Kiran says:

    And iv is monthly or daily basis.
    Thank you.

  173. tarakesh says:

    small update: link of the white paper on IndiaVix is moved to https://www1.nseindia.com/content/indices/white_paper_IndiaVIX.pdf
    You might want to update here.

    You have done a great job! Thank you!

  174. Ninad Dongare says:

    Is there any particular relation of Vega with respect to moneyness of the option?
    It was mentioned that OTM has high Vega but what about ATM, ITM and deep ITM?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, Vega has an impact on the moneyness of the option. With the increase/decrease in vega, the premium too increases/decreases, hence the change in moneyness of the option.

  175. Janta Shah says:

    Dear Sir,

    IV for ATM options are the lowest while the Vega is the largest for ATM options.

    Can you explain this if possible, not understanding it properly?

  176. Trace says:

    Hello Sir,

    When you calculate volatility for the period of next X days (for writing options/maintaining a stop loss) do you count non trading days?

    For your annual volatility calculation you use 252 day.
    For monthly it should be 21 and weekly 5 days correct?

    But when used for fair price calculation of futures/ B&S they use non trading days as well. Does that not cause problems in the calculation?

  177. Jacob says:

    Dear Sir,

    Where can I find the daily average and the annualized average for a certain stock/index.

    On the nse website it only shows the daily and annualized volatility for futures?

  178. Trace says:

    Dear Karthik Sir,

    Just a follow up to my earlier question.

    So when I am calculating a fair value price of a future expiry Feb 25
    There are 17 days to expiry but there are 13 thirteen trading days.

    Both calculations results will be different.
    What should I do?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      As I mentioned, NSE would consider 17, I’d consider 13. I’d suggest you use both for a while and see which one works better for you.

  179. Trace says:

    I found this for historic daily/weekly/monthly/years returns for all indian indices.

    https://www.bloombergquint.com/markets/equities/historical-returns

    Is this good?

  180. SOMNATH RANGREJ says:

    I have the following doubt related to the increase in CE premium by 50-80% for OTM strikes even with the market crashing 5.92%,
    You have attributed this due to an increase in Volatility, as due to sudden up or down movement IV increases theoretically for both CE & PE, I got that.

    – But practically for OTM CE strikes premiums to increase, ideally, there should be more buyers & fewer sellers, but when you already see the market falling who would logically turn out to be OTM CE buyer? I suspect very few & rather there would be more CE sellers would be present.
    – Premiums are bound to increase as it was set by formula? or Practically there need to be some buyers who are willing to buy the CE option when market is falling?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Different opinions is what makes the market and also this is the reason why liquidity is important. As long as there is liquidity, there will be buyers and sellers in the market
      2) It is a function of greeks and supply-demand as well.

  181. Dinesh says:

    Your method of explanation is the best in world!

  182. yash says:

    Hey karthik you have explained options in very simple and alluring way. My query was what is the role of open interest(OI) in options.

  183. Asmita says:

    We do make Delta zero / Neutral strategy on same note can we make Vega zero strategy ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Not possible to eliminate Vega and make it neutral. Or at least, I’m not aware of. Need to figure this out.

  184. Charan says:

    Hi,
    There’s one doubt. Lets take Nifty for example. You say that the option premium rises as the volatility rises. But, we know volatility is nothing but SD of the underlying price. And as the SD increases, the possible range of Nifty increases, which means that the options premium should come down right? Is it because the option seller expects a higher premium to take up more risk since the volatility is high? This is a doubt coming out of theoritical explanation.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Hmm, not really. The higher the volatility (or SD), the higher is the chance of the option expiring ITM, which is not good for the sellers. Hence the sellers expect higher premium.

  185. Charan says:

    Yes I do understand what you say is common-sensical. But your previous chapter takeaway says “Higher the SD, higher is the range, and lower is the premium collected”. Then as per this logic, the premium is supposed to be low for a higher volatility (higher SD) (theoritically speaking) right?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Ah, sorry. I got the context, yes higher the SD, higher is the range, which means that these are OTM (or deep OTM) options which has a lower premium.

  186. Charan says:

    Why is the vega higher for an OTM option? I do understand that it is higher for an option with longer expiry.

  187. Jay says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Great content on volatility.

    Do you know any universal technical indicators that can be used to identify high volatility vs low volatility?

    I know about indicators like ATR, Bollinger Bands etc. These are a bit subjective. For example ATR can be 40 in stock A meaning high volatility, and for stock B with 40 it can mean low volatility.

    By universal I mean, the same value means the same thing for all stocks. For example, MACD line above 0 (say 5), means the instrument(stock, commodity, whatever)..is no longer in downtrend.

    The VIX comes close but unfortunately it applies only for broad based indices.

  188. Jay says:

    I am really surprised no one has developed it yet, considering there are so many indicators for almost anything else.

  189. Mohit says:

    What is the possibility of losing entire capital in option selling if leverage is not taken,comments please

  190. Mohit Mishra says:

    Similar analysis of Vega and volatility requested for 23/03/2020 please

  191. Som says:

    Dear Sir, I understood the overall concept of volatility and implied volatility.
    But what does implied volatility on a particular strike price mean? I am unable to understand the that. Kindly answer my query.
    Thank you.

  192. Avi says:

    Sir when volatility shoots up premium will increase
    On other side we can write the option and collect premium and exit when volatility cools off
    Assume there is good news and markets are expected move higher in such a case option will be expiring ITM if I sold OTM strike clearly I would be losing money right

  193. Ajay says:

    Dear sir, I have read the chapters of volatility 3-4 times but I can’t seem to have an understanding what volatility really is.
    Volatility is the riskiness as you say.
    But what riskiness?
    For example nifty spot is 14,700.
    In OI chain, IV of 15,000 CE is 14.78.
    So what is this 14.78?
    a) Is it that there is 14.78% chance that nifty will reach 15,000?
    b) Is it that nifty may go up and down 14.78% from its spot i.e. 14,700?
    c) Is it that nifty may go up and down 14.78% from the strike 15,000 (as this 14.78 IV is of strike 15,000 CE)?
    d) Or is it something else? If so, kindly explain.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Ajay, think about the volatility figure as a risk indicator. The higher the risk, the higher is the value of the indicator. Also, think of the figure as the % points it can go against your position.

  194. Abdul says:

    1) Delta: High for ITM
    2) Theta: High for OTM
    3) Gamma: High for ATM
    4) Vega: High for OTM
    Correct sir?
    thank u

  195. Pratham Paleriya says:

    Great work, kartik!
    One of the best explanations of option greeks
    I suggest you to bring a module for quantitative analysis.

    Super curious to learn, but can’t find the best like you 😉

  196. Sam says:

    Do trading is a good carrer option?

  197. Harry says:

    Do really one can make enough money in trading to live a desirable life?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Depends on your expectations out of desirable life. But its easier said than done 🙂

  198. Mahavir says:

    Hey Karthik!

    So nice to see someone consistently providing such quality content and support over a good 6 years !!

    Eager to apply the learnings and excited for the subsequent learnings that come up as well!!!

    Also, regarding the August 24, 2015 incident (shared in the chapter), are such occurrings not the norm wherein the OTM option prices shoot up (due to low delta and high vega effects) whenever there is a considerably huge crash in the market?

  199. Abdul says:

    Hello Sir,
    Why IV of options strike price increases ( especially of PE ) near expiry even if there is no big movement on either side.
    Thank u

  200. Rajnish Busa says:

    I think it needs some clarification. Let me know if I am wrong somewhere. Correction is suggested in bracket.

    On 24th August, Nifty declined by 490 points, so all call options which had ‘noticeable Delta’ (like 0.2, 0.3, 0.6 etc) declined. Typically ‘in the money’ (I think it should be said ITM and slightly OTM options instead of saying just ITM options. Because before decline of 500 points Nifty would have been 8300. So, upto 8600 all strikes will be slightly OTM, not ITM. Also, slight OTM has some noticable Delta, while deep OTM has very low delta. So more than 8600 strike prices are deep OTM and that’s why they could not show movement in line with underlying.)options (as on 24th Aug, all strike below 8600) tend to have noticeable Delta, therefore all their premiums declined with the decline in the underlying.

    ‘Out of the money’ (Deep OTM to be specific) options usually have a very low delta like 0.1 or lower. This means, irrespective of the move in the underlying the moment in the option premium will be very restrictive. As on August 24th, all options above 8600 were ‘out of the money’ (Deep OTM to be specific) options with low delta values. Hence irrespective of the massive fall in the market, these call options did not lose much premium value.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Rajnish, there are two ways to look at this – either from the strike price perspective or simply from the delta perspective. ALL strikes above ATM should have higher deltas (higher than 0.5), hence ITM and deep ITM. All strikes below ATM will be OTM or deep OTM. Delta above say 0.3 and the associated strikes will react more quickly to price change compared to the lower delta strikes.

  201. Rajnish Busa says:

    You can’t say, all strikes above ATM are ITM and Deep ITM. it’s true only for Put options. For call options, All strikes below ATM are ITM and Deep ITM.

  202. Shubhika says:

    Hi,
    Is there any plan to teach about GARCH.

  203. Ravi says:

    For buying a call option shd i check IV… what shd be IV value for in the money call option

  204. Shubhika says:

    Hi Karthik Sir ,
    I Ask you Lot of Questions . Hope i don’t Bother you .
    Yesterday, I Was watching BPCL Option Chain and observed some Premiums movement . I Hope I can share a screenshot .
    I Will Write horizontally each Strike and Their delta Values ..
    Spot Closed – 447.50 , Expiry – 28-Oct
    Strike CE – 472 , 475 ,477 , 480 , 482
    Delta – 0.29 ,0.34,0.35,0.23,0.22
    Gamma – 0.0086, 0.0065, 0.0059,
    0.0076, 0.0073
    Theta – -0.31, -0.48, -0.53,
    -0.27,-0.27
    Vega – 0.38, 0.4, 0.41, 0.33, 0.3 Premium- 5.95, 12.15, 13.85, 4.80,4.85
    Change in premium= +1.35, 0, 0, -0.15,
    +0.10
    Implied Volatility – 32.18, 51.78, 57.45,
    34.41, 36.81
    OI = 66,000, X, X, 4,66,200,
    1,26,000
    Volume – 63,000, X, X, 12,43,800,
    46,800
    Points to be noted…
    1. Why we saw a Positive Response
    only in Strike 472, 482 , There is
    massive positive Change in Strike 472
    only. If we Notice that low delta is the
    factor that prevent to Fall in Premium
    then Strike 482 has Low delta Than.
    Strike 472 ,still 472 has gain More in.
    Premium .
    2. If we Check IV factor still Strike 482
    has more volatile which Help to Rise
    the Premium but still 472 Strike gain.
    More Change in Premium.
    3. Strike 480 also has Low delta but
    still it’s Premium Fall and Have more
    IV Than Strike 472.
    4. If we consider Volume and OI still
    Strike 472 hasn’t won from Strike
    482 and 480.
    5. My Question is Why only Strike 472
    gain in Premium

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      When you consider greek, there is an underlying assumption that all options are liquid. If the options aren’t liquid, what really matters the most is the demand-supply situation of options and their respective strike. Given that, I’m guessing that the strike under consideration is not very liquid here, hence the greeks don’t really obey as expected :).

  205. Shubhika says:

    Karthik Sir,

    All The OTM strikes which are gaining Yesterday are losing premium today strikes like 472 and 482
    and All the other strikes gaining Premium Today which were Losing Yesterday.
    Still My Question is why Strike 472 only gained Premium Yesterday

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Again, it’s the closest to the ATM strike, hence slightly better liquidity I guess. Did you observe the bid-ask spreads also?

  206. Shubhika says:

    Hi,
    I checked bid – Ask spread , BID = 5.20 and Ask = 7.35 , Spread – 2.15 ,
    Premium closed at 5.95 and gain of +1.35
    I understand greek Will increase or decrease the Premium of a particular Strike but I don’t understand how spread can increase The Premium .

    Can I Take These assumptions on this 472 Strike
    1. Volume and OI of this strike Was in
    thousands where as Strike 482 OI and Volume Was in lakhs.
    2. when spot increase , initially buyer increase The Demand of the Contract and it tends to increase in premium as We can see this strike is illiquid in Term of OI and Volume as compare to Other strike . So, neither buyer increase The Price Nor seller decrease The Ask Price and Premium Stuck with a Positive Sign as There is Major Difference in between BID and Ask spread.
    I am Confused , May be You Get Point and correct me

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Imagine I place a market order in an illiquid option, what do you think will happen? Order will get executed at odd price and premium increases right?

  207. Pranay says:

    sir can u please answer Mr. Ajay’s question on 13 may 2021 based on volatility. I seem to have the same doubt while going through the chapter. Basically my question is, what does the value of implied volatility in percentage represents for different strike prices.
    My second question is what does the percentage increase in india vix represents? Does it represent the increase in volatility in nifty only.
    thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Pranay, each strike has different IVs, which represents the riskiness of the strike as per the market participants. The higher the IV, the higher is the risk for that strike.

  208. Kartik Rai says:

    Hi,
    Does VEGA affect intraday trades ?
    Is it negligible for intraday ?
    IF NOT THEN
    How should it be used to measure risk for intraday ?
    ?????????????????????? ??????

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Vega has an impact on intrday trades, especially when the rate of change of volatility is high. Its best if you keep track of volatility and take a call.

  209. Kartik Rai says:

    THANKS SIR,

  210. Suraj Pratap says:

    Hey Karthik,
    I have been started practicing model based approach to trading. I want to get my hands on a book that can help me understand all the maths related to trading. Can you suggest one. thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Suraj, I think there is a book called quantitative techniques to markets, I forget the author’s name though. Maybe you should check that.

  211. aashish says:

    Hello Karthik,

    Can we not compare the Annualized historical volatility and Vix india to take a trade in options by checking the IV of each strike and wait for the volatility to cool off in order to analyze in a efficient manner?

  212. Shivansh Agarwal says:

    can we trade indiaVIX

  213. Shivansh Agarwal says:

    there was option to trade it earlier ?? as I found a blog by Nithin Kamath on z-connect dated February 13, 2014 and also found a pdf related to derivative of vix on Nse website, then if it was tradable earlier why it was stopped from trading

  214. Robin Sethi says:

    Hey Kartik, in the above-mentioned paragraphs, the 6th point from the NSE whitepaper, you have mentioned that with an increase in volatility, the nifty can head towards any direction which contradicts what is written on Investopedia about the volatility. I also feel with volatility rising, the index might fall and therefore make sense to call it a FEAR INDEX.

    Please correct me if wrong.

  215. Ankit says:

    Hi Karthik,

    How can we check if volatility of specific option is high or low. What we see in the NSE option chain is IV at that instant. Based on that single number it’s difficult to say whether it’s high or low. Are there set benchmarks eg: >30 is considered high and so on?

    Thanks!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      One quick way is to cross-check the historical volatility of the stock and the intrinsic volatility and get a sense of the current volatility.

  216. Kishore says:

    In the tail end of Section 19.2, the following is stated

    “For example – if the option has a vega of 0.15, then for each % change in volatility, the option will gain or lose 0.15 in its theoretical value.”

    There is ambiguity in the statement. Since vega being represented as one point change, option value change should also be in points. In the above case, option value will be experiencing 0.15% change (Without the %, it may be construed as INR 0.15 for example).

    Isn’t it?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Let me recheck this, Kishore. I have a feeling I may have made another inadvertent error here. Need to re check the content once.

  217. Dhananjay says:

    Vega measures increase or decrease in premium for 1% respective change in volatility. So let say
    Nifty spot 16600
    ATM CALL 16600 has premium of 40
    16600 CE Vega = 0.95
    16600 CE delta = 0.47
    If I expect volatility to increase(as measured by India VIX) by end of day by 6% and Nifty to move to 16700 by EOD then
    from delta perspective:
    delta of 0.47 translates to 47 points when Nifty moves up by 100 points
    so final premium will be 40+ 47 = 87

    from volatility perspective:
    If volatility shoots up by 6% then premium will go up by 6*0.95=5.7
    so final premium value will be 40+ 5.7= 45.7

    so what should be actual final premium? 87 or 45.7 or will it be 40+47+5.7=92.7

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, provided there is ample time to expiry as well. Remember, the premium of an option is a function of multiple factors acting simultaneously on the option. Some tend to pull the premium up and some tend to pull the premium down.

  218. Dhananjay says:

    Ohh! it means whatever the final premium, it will be due to effect of multiple Greeks but we can’t really separately tell that which Greek contributed by how much right?

  219. Ankush Mishra says:

    Hi Karthik,
    Is implied volatility value for any particular option in NSE option chain or in sensibull is for 30 days?
    So if we have to calculate the voltility of that option for today, do we have to apply
    Iv value for daily = iv value for 30 day / squareroot(30).

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Ankush, not sure if I understand your query completely. You can consider the daily IV to get a sense of how volatile the stock is.

  220. Dhananjay says:

    When volatility increases, option prices increases attributable to vega. So here is one thought, please let me know can I implement it-
    – When more time left to expiry, theta will be less for options. Also vega will be considerably high relative to theta.
    – Far OTM options also will have low delta. So when market falls there will be very low effect attributable to delta but at the same time, if volatility increases, then option prices will increase.

    To conclude, If I am thinking that current volatility is cooled off(on Friday may be or long holidays) and will lift in upcoming sessions (Mondays for sake of discussion) then I can decide to buy OTM call options with low delta and having more time to expiry.

    What other factors may affect this implementation? Please add.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, if you feel volatility will increase in the coming few sessions and if you think there is enough time to expiry, then you can consider buying OTMs. But in this situation, what really matters is the underlying’s directional move. You need to have conviction about it.

  221. Dhananjay says:

    Yes! But if I want to trade BTST and if I am choosing deep OTM then delta will be small and directional movement will not have much effect on premium. Is this right thought process?

    Also, for sake of volatility what do I have to look for? IV of that particular strike (which is deep OTM) or IV of ATM strike or India VIX?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, but BTST or overnight positions, the only problem is gaps up or down opening. For IV, look at the ATM strikes IV.

  222. Dhananjay says:

    Yes! Thanks for making it more perfect
    Thank you so much!

  223. Dhananjay says:

    Somewhere in previous chapters you mentioned about Quants. I just looked about it on internet and found that it is really a deep thing. Does learning those things (Calculus, differentials and so on for financial markets purpose) helps in generating more neat insight into markets?

    I want to know how Quants(People who actually know mathematical models for finance) are different from normal people like me(Who just know 2/3 statistical concepts)?

  224. Dhananjay says:

    Thank you for your reply!

    I just looked at chapters in that module. Although I couldn’t understand much out of it but I came to know that these are flooded with statistics and mathematics. So can I say this module is primer to quantitative analysis?

  225. Prabhu Krishnan says:

    Dear Karthik,

    Ahh,hmm, sry for the big query, but you are the right person to help me 🙂

    I’ve the below query

    Basically my query is when the markets falls due to sudden positive(India VIX shoots up) and negative news(India VIx shoots up)

    In both cases what would happen to the premium with respect to the moneyness of option

    Consider other parameters are constant

    Let assume market up and down based on some events

    1.If the market is crashed(market fall) , hence the India VIX would increased, so the option premium would change based on the moneyness of the option

    In Case of CE:
    ==============
    ->the call options the premium would have decreased its value (ITM and ATM have more impact) ->because of the rate of change of delta
    ->But the OTM have the low delta but because of Vega, the premium is increased

    In Case of PE:
    ==============
    ->the put options premium would have increased(ITM and ATM have more impact)
    ->But the OTM premium also would have increased not as much as ITM and ATM (Vega effect)

    2.If the market is up based on some positive news/event, then India VIX would increased

    In Case of CE:
    ————–
    – CE premiums would have increased it value(ITM and ATM have more impact)
    – But the OTM have also increased(Vega) but not as much as the ITM and ATM because of the rate of change of delta

    In Case of PE:
    ————–

    -PE premiums would have decreased(ITM and ATM have more impact)
    -But the OTM would have increased because of Vega (rate of change of delta is low)

    Please correct my above understanding is correct or not in all cases

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Its like this –

      1) VIX increases, market crashes.
      2) With the increase in VIX, premiums of both CE and PE increases
      3) PE is also supported by delta, so put premiums increase
      4) Delta works against the CE, hence CE tends to lose value, unless the VIX spike is so much that it can compensate the fall in delta

  226. G Raja Vishnu says:

    Why will call option writers panics if volatility increases? when the contract closes in the money for them.

  227. Paras says:

    As explained as volatility increases there is a chance that market can go in any direction from the current position either bearish or bullish , whatever the case may be the buyer will be benefited as there is a chance that a particular strike will get converted to ITM.
    However if as a call option buyer my view is bullish but the mark falls then in that case will the Premium’s first change for both call and put option buyers and will further react to the market situation’s?
    That is when we say the premium will increase irrespective of call or put does that mean we have to capitalize only during the first phase when volatility is in our favour and in the next phase whatever the current market position maybe bearish or bullish it is not our concern as we have already done and dusted our trade in phase-1.
    Please guide for the same.
    Thanks in advance!!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Generally, volatility increases when the market falls. With the market fall the CE premium reduces but of course the increase in volatility also helps hold up the CE premium a bit.

  228. sumit kumar says:

    Hi, is it true for the opposite case? when there is high volatility and the market goes up? will the OTM premium be changing with the same rate?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Premium will certainly change. But to what extent is something that depends on many other variables.

  229. Paras says:

    So we can say that volatility also depends on current market factors and to set up a profitable trade we need a good combination of Vega+ current market trend which is as you said as market falls volatility increases which means it would be better to be a buyer of put option as market view+Vega+Theta will favour me to earn profit on large scale due to change in premium.

    Also can we say that when market rises the volatility decreases??

  230. Paras says:

    About the Implied volatility of a particular strike is it for the period of 30 days for current month and 60 days for far month or is it the annual volatility which we need to convert into daily volatility??
    Same regarding the index IND vix??
    Thanks in advance!

  231. Paras says:

    I think you didn’t got my question let me explain it again the implied volatility for a particular strike is say 35%, then is this it’s daily volatility or it’s current month for 30 dys which we need to convert it by sd*sqrt of 30 to get the daily implied volatility for that strike.

    Also in case of India VIX as it represents the volatility of 30dys meaning it’s for 30dys whole say it is 60% , meaning it’s the implied volatility for the whole 30 days which we need not to convert in daily volatility. Right?
    Guide for the same
    Thanks in advance!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Paras, so the volatility that you see is annualized. If a stock’s IV is 35%, then its 35% per year. If you want to get daily, then you have to divide this by Sqrt of time (not multiply).

      So is with India Vix, it’s annualized.

  232. Harshil says:

    Hey there sir,
    Can you please explain when a strike is near expiry the volatility is high but vega is low near expiry

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Harshil, I guess it’s explained in the chapter itself. That’s the behavior of greeks 🙂

  233. Ashutosh Ghuley says:

    If all option writers start fearing the volatility, then what would compel them to write options? Clearly, a higher premium amount would. Therefore instead of Rs.20, if the premium was 30 or 40, you may just think about writing the option I suppose.
    Increasing volatility may still push the premiums even higher? Or not? And the premiums may not expire worthless. Yes, time value depreciates and that could be a chance to win the trade as an options writer.
    Please two bits from you!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      That right, Ashutosh. Increase in volatility increases premium and that works as an incentive for option writers to write options.

  234. Ashutosh Ghuley says:

    In fact this is exactly what goes on when volatility increases (or is expected to increase) – option writers start fearing that they could be caught writing options that can potentially transition to ‘in the money’. But nonetheless, fear too can be overcome for a price, hence option writers expect higher premiums for writing options, and therefore the premiums of call and put options go up when volatility is expected to increase.
    If they are writing options,how could the premiums of call and put options go up? They should come down or my concept not yet clear? Pl correct me.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      When you write an option, there is someone else buying the options right? Option writers want a higher price, if the buyer agrees to buy, the price increases.

  235. Ashutosh Ghuley says:

    For example – if the option has a vega of 0.15, then for each % change in volatility, the option will gain or lose 0.15 in its theoretical value.
    The current vega for Nifty strikes is 17.So the option will loose or gain 17 in theoretical value?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, that’s what Vega indicates. But remember, there are multiple strikes acting on the premium simultaneously.

  236. Ashutosh Ghuley says:

    Thanks Sir. Things now little obscured now.

  237. Ashutosh Ghuley says:

    I have been watching markets closely and INDIA VIX seems to be fairly good indicator to point at the direction of the index,Nifty. If INDIA VIX BELOW OR AROUND 20, Nifty is not steep in up or down movements. If IV is above 20 and increasing,Nifty drops down.
    The question is while choosing a spread strategy;
    1- how to decide IV is low or high?
    2- how to know whether volatility is going to increase or decrease?
    3- can I look at BB indicator to have a guess?
    4- suppose all other indicators point out that Nifty is oversold and INDIA VIX IS below or around 20, can I conclude that Nifty is going up and volatility is not going to create problem?
    Many more questions to come as I continue to read.
    Regards. Ashutosh.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) One easy way to compare is to look at historical volatility and compare
      2) Same as above
      3) Yes, that is a good option. Plot it on Nifty 50
      4) Maybe, but you should test your assumption and see how it has performed in the past.

  238. Ashutosh Ghuley says:

    Lots of thanks, Sir.

  239. Shubhika says:

    India VIX indicates the investor’s perception of the market’s volatility in the near term (next 30 calendar days)
    India VIX is denoted as an annualized percentage

    Sir, Suppose India VIX valued @ 20. Now, this value is annualized% or next 30 days Volatility. Honestly I didn’t understand above statement.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      So that would be 20% for the year. In finance, most of these %s are annualized, unless specified. Like the interest rate, it is for the year, unless specified.

  240. Shubhika says:

    Realized volatility matters especially if you want to compare today’s implied volatility with respect to the historical implied volatility. We will explore this angle in detail when we take up “Option Trading Strategies”.

    Sir, Can you tell me under which option strategy we have discussed about Realized volatility. I read Straddle, Strangle and Iron Condor strategy but didn’t see any topic related to Realized volatility there.

  241. Nikhil says:

    Since the effect of Vega is highest on OTM options, can we say that for the ITM options, the effect of Delta (0.5 or more) cancels out the effect of Vega? Can we calculate up to what extent Delta will cancel out Vega for say an ITM with 0.8 delta?

  242. Sandeep says:

    Dear Karthik sir,

    The chapter says that Implied Volatility represents the expectation of the volatility. And the Forecasted volatility is forecasting the volatility.
    This forecasting is based on expectation right ? So what is the difference. Please help me understand the difference between these two.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Implied volatility = Volatility thats panning out in the market right now
      Forecasted volatility = Volatility you expect

      So right now IV can be 20%, but lets say in 2 days there is a RBI meet and hence you forecast volatility can be higher, say 30%.

  243. Sandeep says:

    Thanks a lot sir for your explanation. 🙂

  244. Sandeep says:

    Dear Karthik sir,
    Please solve these queries of mine :
    1. When the volatility increases then only the Premiums for CE options increase or both CE and PE increase ?
    Similarly,
    2. When the volatility decreases then only the Premiums for PE options decrease or both CE and PE decrease ?

    Thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Both CE and PE will increase
      2) Both

      All else equal, only if Volatility increases option premiums increase, likewise with the decrease in volatility, premiums decline too.

  245. Sandeep says:

    Dear Karthik sir,

    Is India VIX helpful in trading? If it is, kindly explain how to use it effectively in trading.

    Thanks

  246. Sandeep says:

    Ok sir kindly put a video on this soon.

  247. Sandeep says:

    Dear Karthik sir,

    The Implied Volatility that we see in the options chain is Annualized 1 SD right? Thanks

  248. Sandeep says:

    And the Intrinsic Volatility in the options chain is 1 SD right sir?

  249. Sandeep says:

    Dear Karthik sir,

    How can we know the Realized volatility of a stock? Thanks

  250. Sandeep says:

    Got it sir. So realized volatility is another name for Historical Volatility that we learnt in Chapter 17 and 18 right?

  251. Sandeep says:

    Thanks sir.
    1. How do we know what was the realized volatility for a stock after market closing?
    2. I have gone through the chapters of historical volatility but what is the calculation for realized volatility for a particular day?
    Thanks.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) On a closing basis, you can calculate the SD with respect to the previous few closing. This will give you the daily SD, which is also the realized volatility
      2) Its the same.

  252. Sandeep says:

    Thanks sir, you have already taught that method of calculating the daily SD based on the previous closing prices.
    But I wanted to know calculating the daily volatility based on the OHLC of any particular day, suppose today.
    Is there any such method ?
    Thanks

  253. Sandeep says:

    Actually I thought we can calculate the volatility based on how much high/low stock went from opening price. Can we do that sir?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, that’s intraday volatility. There are quant models to forecast that, but quite complex to develop one. I’ve never done that.

  254. Sandeep says:

    Sir, what you say is predicting the intraday volatility but I asked about calculating the volatility after market closes.
    Like how much high/low stock went from opening price. Is that possible? if yes what is the method to do that.
    Thanks

  255. Sandeep says:

    I want to calculate the realized volatility for today considering today’s OHLC values. I DON’T want to take previous closing prices into account.
    In such situation can we calculate today’s realized volatility?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      You can calculate the SD of the price. On excel = STDEV(open price, close price). But this won’t be accurate, as SD is on returns, not price. For return, you need previous close data.

  256. Sandeep says:

    Thanks a lot sir for helping me.

  257. Sandeep says:

    Dear Karthik sir,
    The chapter says “The effect of Vega is particularly high for ‘Out of the money’ options.”
    Out of slight OTM and deep OTM, which one reacts more?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Have posted the explanation in one of the earlier comments, Sandeep. Request you to check that out once.

  258. Sandeep says:

    Karthik sir, i read the comment. Quoting you….”yes, deep OTM options do react to change in volatility – but do bear in mind this has to be a massive change in volatility, like what happened on 24th August. However, such events are not very frequent”
    So this is what I understood —> In normal cases when Volatility increases, the slight OTM reacts more than the deep OTM. Am I right sir?

  259. Sandeep says:

    Karthik sir,
    In one of the comments a guy asked you ->
    “How to conclude that the present IV for a particular stock is high or low? Is it based on vega?”
    You said ->
    For this you need to calculate daily historical volatility and convert it to annual volatility and get a “quick” perspective.
    My question is with what this annual historical volatility has to be compared to get a quick perspective?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Sandeep, you compare the stock or the index’s current volatility with its historical volatility to get a sense of how the volatility is moving.

  260. Sandeep says:

    Thank you sir, but how to know a stock/index’s current volatility? Kindly guide.

  261. Sandeep says:

    Sir, many thanks for your help. Today i checked the Nifty ATM’s IV. On the CALL side, it was 22.73 while on the PUT side it was 24.88.
    So which IV should we consider CALL side or PUT side?
    Thanks.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Although the IV of both CEs and PEs are supposed to be similar, they don’t due to the demand and supply mismatch. YOu can take these as a rough estimate, maybe average too works. In this case, I’d consider the IV around 23-24%.

  262. Sandeep says:

    Thank you so much sir. Yesterday Nifty’s historical volatility was 22.86% and current volatility was 23%.
    This means that current volatility was greater than historical volatility. Sir, what according to you it indicates when
    1. Current volatility is greater than historical volatility?
    2. Current volatility is less than historical volatility?
    Please guide. Thanks.

  263. Sandeep says:

    No sir I only wanted to know that what perspective we can arrive at if we see
    1. Current volatility of the stock/index is more than it’s historical volatility? and
    2. Current volatility of the stock/index is less than it’s historical volatility? Please guide.
    Thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Ok. If the current IV is say 23% and the historical is 24%, then the current IV is lesser than the historical, and we can expect it to go higher hence look for option buying opportunities.

  264. Sandeep says:

    Many thanks sir. Got it.

  265. Sandeep says:

    Dear Karthik sir,
    In one of the comments above a guy has observed on someday ->
    1. Nifty is INCREASING.
    2. Both CALL and PUT Strikes are slightly OTM.
    3. Even if Nifty is moving in upward direction CALL premium is falling and PUT premium is increasing.
    What could be the reason for this? Please guide.
    Thanks

  266. Sandeep says:

    Sir, time for expiry is the same for both CE and PE option. Both are slightly OTM strikes. Volatility is same for both.
    But what’s astonishing is that while underlying is increasing, the CE is decreasing and PE is increasing. What could be
    the possible reason for this ?

  267. Sandeep says:

    Couldn’t get you sir. What is the effect if CE is OTM? could you please explain?

  268. Sandeep says:

    Sir, this is the query I had posted —-> (This is from a guy’s comment above)
    1. Nifty is INCREASING.
    2. Long CALL and long PUT of Slightly OTM strike and difference between two strikes is 100.
    3. Although Nifty is moving in upward direction CALL premium is falling and PUT premium is increasing.
    This is quite puzzling because if volatility is increasing both the CE and PE premiums should increase and if volatility is decreasing then both
    CE and PE premiums should fall. Please help me understand sir why is this happening.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Got it. So the premium is not the function of directional movement. It is a function of time to expiry, volatility, the speed at which the market is moving etc. So, in this case, while the market’s direction worked in the trade’s favor, other factors may not play out well.

  269. Sandeep says:

    Sir, I got it why CALL premium fell despite Nifty going up. But why did the PUT increase?
    As per my understanding,
    – Nifty’s volatility is common to both CALL and PUT.
    – Time to expiry is same for both.
    So what caused PUT to increase? Kindly guide sir.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Look at strike-specific volatility. For example, 17400 CE vol could be 22%, but 17400 PE can be 30%. PE strike volatility must have shot up, there could be no other reason.

  270. Sandeep says:

    Sir, many thanks for your explanation. But I have some doubts.
    1. You have taught that when volatility increases, premium of BOTH CALL and PUT increase. But in this case what could be the reason
    that the CALL side IV fell whereas the PUT side IV increased?
    2. What is the significance of Strike specific volatility? How is it used in trading? Kindly guide sir.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) That is true, assuming all other greeks are constant. But in reality, all greeks move in real-time. While one tends to increase the premium, others drag them down.
      2) You can check the option chain from Sensibull. Its like the volatility of a particular strike; the premium will change based on how the volatility impacts that strike.

  271. Sandeep says:

    No sir, actually I am curious as to why the CALL side IV decreased while PUT side IV of the same strike INCREASED.
    What could be the possible reason? Kindly guide on that.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      So one of the contributing factors for IV change is also the demand and supply dynamics. In fact, this is the reason why IVs for the same strike can be different.

  272. Sandeep says:

    Sir, many thanks for your explanation. I have some doubts..
    1. In this case since the PUT side IV has gone up, can we say that more people are expecting price reversal?
    2. Do such events occur frequently where IV’s of the same strike are different?

  273. Sandeep says:

    Sir, then what could be the reason for demand and supply increasing for this PUT side IV?
    As you say that such events occur often, generally speaking why does demand and supply increase for one side IV of the same strike
    as compared to the other side?
    Thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      If traders feel bearish over the next few days, then they can probably buy and sell more PUTS, thereby increasing the OI for puts, and hence the demand-supply dynamics would impact the IV.

  274. Sandeep says:

    Thank you very much sir.

  275. Sandeep says:

    Sir, suppose I have bought 17600 CE and the volatility of PE side increases because more people are now feeling bearish.
    Then should I exit my position immediately and go with people’s perception or wait with the hope that Nifty will go up?
    Please advice.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Sandeep, that’s a tricky call to be a contrarian or go with the crowd. It depends on your reading of the market and how convinced you are on the outcome. Very hard for me to advice you on what you should do 🙂

  276. Sandeep says:

    Ok sir got it. Thanks.

  277. Franklin Loyola says:

    Sir,
    Why the effect of Vega is particularly high for ‘Out of the money’ options. And also did the rise in volatility limited the decline in call options strike below 8600 to any extend

  278. Franklin Loyola says:

    Sir,
    This question is in relation to the query i just raised,
    ‘when calculating using the option calculator vega is higher for OTM compared to deep OTM.’
    But sir,as deep OTM options have lower data,they decline less than OTM options,hence more rise.
    Is it so,sir?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      You can also think about this from probability perspective. Deep ITM or deep OTM have higher degree of certainty in terms of expiring ITM and OTM respectively. So change in volatility (unless its super large change) does not really impact the outsome of these options. But on the other hand, change in vega impacts the borderline options i.e. ATM and in and around ATM options.

  279. Franklin Loyola says:

    Sir,
    Is it possible to delete or edit a comment?

  280. Franklin Loyola says:

    Sir,searched throughout the chapter as you told,but couldn’t find answer for the question “Why the effect of Vega is particularly high for ‘Out of the money’ options.”is it because they have low delta.Sir,Can you please help me with this
    And also,on 24th August 2015 the decline in options wasn’t proportional to the decline in spot due to increase in volatility which eventually increases premium,Am i correct?

  281. Franklin Loyola says:

    Sir,
    1.daily SD is also the realized volatility and Implied Volatility in the options chain is Annualized 1 SD
    Sir,are these statements true ?
    How come these are calculated in terms of SD?and also Sir,what is meant by intrinsic volatility?

    2.”volatility based on how much high/low stock went from opening price is intraday volatility. There are quant models to forecast that.It can be looked upon as a method to predict the intraday volatility.”
    Sir,is this true?if yes
    How come one know a day’s high/low until the close of the day?So how does forecasting intraday volatility works?

    3.And also,on 24th August 2015 the decline in options premium wasn’t proportional to the decline in spot due to the fact that All options increase in premium when volatility increases,is it correct,sir?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Implied volatility is the volatility that the market expects over the next few trading sessions
      2) Yes. Your models will consider the previous day’s high and low and predict intraday vol for today
      3) Yes, that’s correct.

  282. Franklin Loyola says:

    Sir,
    You said”to conclude that the present IV for a particular stock is high or low,you need to calculate daily historical volatility and convert it to annual volatility and compare.”
    Sir instead of calculating it by ourselves through Excel,is it ok to use the ones given in NSE website,is there accuracy or any other issues with it
    2.sir i donno whether this question makes sense or not,why Implied Volatility in the options chain is Annualized 1 SD if it is the volatility that the market expects over the next few trading sessions

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      You can actually look at the ATR indicator to get a sense of where the volatility is. That is how volatility is measured 🙂

  283. Vijay says:

    Hi Kartik, In section 19.2 towards the end, you have written that, ‘for each % change in volatility the option will gain or lose 0.15 of its theoretical value’. It implies that the option value may decrease too. How is this possible if vega is always positive. The gain/lose mentioned above does it pertain to value of vega or premium value of the options.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      So vega is positive, if the volatility increases, so does the option premium and if the volatility decreases, so would the option premium. For example, volatility moving from 15% to 20% increases the option premium and a decrease from 20% to 16%, which tends to lower the option premium.

  284. Sukumar Satapathy says:

    Everything being said, one important thing to note here is – Quentin Tarantino, getting a lifetime pass for directing Pulp fiction.

  285. Sukumar Satapathy says:

    And oh, did I mention this – Amazing content so far. This is the 5th module I am reading and I must say all these modules are very well written and easy to grasp. I can only imagine the sheer work that the author has put in to simplify and organise everything. Wonderful !!!

  286. Abhijeet says:

    As IV is usually more valued, isn’t it a good idea to use Implied Volatility (IndiaVIX) to use for the calculation of the underlying’s range for ‘x’ number of days? Instead of Historical Volatility?

  287. Sagar Arora says:

    Sir u have IV of option strikes can be calculated, please tell how that is done, or maybe i a missed something here.

  288. Sagar Arora says:

    Sir you have said IV of option strikes can be calculated, please tell how that is done, or maybe i misses something.

  289. arvind ramamoorthy says:

    Karthik Sir ,
    why implied volatility of options increases near expiry date ( when compared to options with far away expiry date ) & highest on expiry day ?

    thank you

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The non-mathematical explanation is that as expiry approaches, there is greater uncertainty (especially for ATM options) to transitioning to OTM or ITM. Hence the volatility tends to increase.

  290. arvind ramamoorthy says:

    Karthik Sir

    why implied volatility of options (of nearby expiry date ) increases near expiry date ( when compared to far away expiry ) & highest on expiry date ?

  291. Abhishek Gupta says:

    Hello karthik sir!!!
    Vega is generally highest and lowest for which type of options- OTM,ATM,ITM ?
    Also, with the increase in volatility, vega increases the most and least for which type of option- OTM,ITM, ATM ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Closer to expiry, it’s for ATM strike. Also, with an increase in volatility, its always the ATM which reacts the most. Do check the chapter, I’ve discussed this in detail.

  292. Nikhil Choudhary says:

    hello karthik,
    nice article . can you help me with relation of strike prices and volatility. as you mentioned at OTM options volatility was high

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Nikhil, I have discussed this in detail in the later chapters. Request you to kindly check that. Thanks.

  293. mayank says:

    what is GARCH model??
    can you please provide some insights.

  294. Jatin says:

    Hi Karthik – I cannot thank you enough for the great content, presented in a super-simple format. I have a very lame and basic doubt. I have seen several times in the option chain that the IV for the call and put options vary significantly for same (ATM) strike price or equidistant OTM options. e.g. today, 19th Jul, 10.35 am, below are IVs. If, say, Put IVs are relatively much higher than Call IVs for equidistant OTM strikes, can we assume that it is ‘likely’ that fear is higher on that side (e.g. Put in this case), and hence, market unlikely to go up? If not, what could be the reason for such large differences?

    Nifty Spot – 19806
    19800 Call – IV – 13.96
    19800 Put – IV – 16.3

    20000 Call IV – 14.07
    19600 Put IV – 19.04

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks Jatin, glad you liked the content. Each strike has a its own demand and supply situation, which tends to impact the strike specific IVs, hence the difference.

  295. Jatin says:

    Thanks. That is what I was trying to infer – if Put IV is higher, there is higher Put buy demand vis-a-vis Call buy demand generally by bigger hands, isn’t it? Conversely or another way to look at it, bigger hands are interested in selling calls aggressively vis-a-vis Puts. I know nothing is certain in the markets, but isnt this the likely scenario that causes this IV or pricing imbalance?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, these are demand-supply forces at play, Jatin and they do tend to impact the IV. Btw, another factor to consider is the liquidity of the contract as well. Lower the liquidity, higher the IV.

  296. Nandan says:

    Thank you for putting in so much effort in designing these learning modules. I am a newbie to the markets and have learnt immensely.

  297. Swarnava Addya says:

    Hello karthik sir,

    As an aspiring trader, market participant and a varsity learner , my job is to find oppurtunities in the markets, identify the probability of risk and reward (like for bullish position , we need to find the stocks that are in downtrend and a reversal candlestick pattern like bullish engulfing/morning star and hammer with good volumes and take the long trade with determined target and stoploss. But when after exiting , reaching the target price, the stock moves up a lot. If I book profit or book a loss, I am happy but when I see it is going up even after reaching the target, it’s causing some pain in the mind disturbing the mindset while taking trades, decreasing the confidence level. How to handle this ?For example , I bought voltas for a swing trade at 797 , sold at 870 with a risk to reward of 1:10 now it is above 900rs within a month. It happened with me in several stocks like idfc first bank, irfc , syrma sgs.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I totally understand and it does happen to all of us. One easy way to deal with this is to deploy something called as a trailing stop loss, where you trail your profits and not sell everything at once. Keep pushing the stop loss and let the position move along.

  298. Swarnava Addya says:

    but I could not find trailing sl for delivery trades in kite app

  299. Suman Kundu says:

    Just let me know what are the statistical models are used for predict price of an instrument?

  300. John says:

    Dear Mr. Karthik,
    Thank you very much for sharing with us so many of your in-depth and informative articles on Options. To date, you have been the only writer who has been able to provide very unique perspective on Options from a practical approach.

    Regarding your following 2 statements in your Modules on Vega:
    “The effect of Vega is particularly high for ‘Out of the money’ options”
    “High Vega value increased the option premium for these out of the money options”

    However, based on the following 2 sources (as attached below), Vega is lowest for OTM and ITM which is different from your above-mentioned statement.
    I seek your kind enlightenment.
    Thank you

    https://www.macroption.com/option-vega/
    At the money options have greatest time value and highest vega. Options further away from the money to either side (ITM, OTM) have less time value and lower vega.

    https://www.merrilledge.com/investment-products/options/learn-understand-vega-options
    Vega is centered around ATM options and falls as it moves OTM or ITM.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks John. Let me review my content again, but these are graphs inferred from B&S model, so I’m fairly certain about it, but no harm double checking i guess 🙂

  301. John says:

    Dear Mr. Karthik, Thank you very much for your prompt response. Basically, I was comparing your statements as stated in the module against 2 other sources. There is a difference in terms of the Vega value for OTM options. Thank you

  302. Debayan says:

    Sir.. I am nither a programmer nor a statics student… Can i forecast volatility by using GARCH model?? If yes then how?? If no then what is required to do this?? Also suggest me some study material where I can understand GARCH model in a lucid manner..

  303. Jigeesh nair says:

    Dear Sir,
    If the INDIA VIX is 16, does it mean that the volatility anticipated for the next 30 calendar days is 16 percent from the current value? or is it indicating an annual change of 16 percent from the current value?
    “India VIX indicates the investor’s perception of the market’s volatility in the near term (next 30 calendar days)”
    “While Nifty is a number, India VIX is denoted as an annualized percentage”
    – I am slightly confused with the above statements. Many thanks in advance

  304. Kenneth says:

    Hello,

    In this statement:
    “The Vega of an option measures the rate of change of option’s value (premium) with every percentage change in volatility”.

    Does “Volatility” here refer to the Implied Volatility or the Realized Volatility?

  305. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,

    I am finding a bit difficulty in understanding the subtle differences of various types of volatility that you discussed. In between tried to get help of some material in net. Could you kindly help me with the below if I am correct?

    (i) Historical volatility, Forecasted volatility and realized volatility- All are measured with respect to underlying movement.
    (ii) Implied volatility- Meausred with respect to option premium pricing.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thats correct. I think I had given a weather example to explain this, did you get a chance to see that?

  306. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,
    What is the implied volatility that is published in NSE suggest? Does that suggest volatility for an upcoming month time or is it annualized?

  307. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,

    The implied volatility changes on every day.That means the prediction of volatility for an upcoming period also changes every time. Right?

  308. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,

    In one area, you wrote that realized volatility is required when we try to compare today’s implied volatility over historical implied volatility. Could you kindly elaborate here?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Today’s realized volatility is tomorrow’s historical volatility. So all volatility types are related 🙂

  309. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,

    Does technical analysis hold good in graph of Implied volatility?

  310. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,

    Like volatility helps in prediction of range for the underlying, does implied volatility figure also helps to realize the range of the underlying movement? If no,does it helps if realizing the premium range of options? I am a bit confused.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Nope, not really. But then end of the day, it is a volatility type. So it does help to some extent.

  311. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,

    Suppose, on one day, India VIX value of 16. I hope it means for a year ahead. Suppose again that the time to expiry is 12 days. Then if I want to measure the volatility for 12 days , can we move ahead like – 16/sqrt 252*12

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      ViX is annualized, yes, you can convert it to whatever time you need by dividing it by Sq root of time.

  312. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,

    In option chain, I could see “OPEN PRICE,HIGH PRICE,LOW PRICE,CLOSE PRICE,LAST PRICE,SETTLE PRICE” indicates?

  313. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,

    Just to receive your opinion on the below:

    You have shown to find range of swing of a stock/index thorugh collecting each day’s close data and then chalk out mean, s.d and then ultimately find s.d for a day. Accordingly we then find range for a particular time frame.

    (i) Will it be more accurate if we would rather collect historical data hourly basis (rather than day) data and then find range for a particular time frame?

    (ii) Also, if we want range for intraday/hourly/minute time frame, will it be more accurate if we collect and consider only recent data say, last 30 days (and not the entire last year)? I am a little perplexed here.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Too much data can lead to noise and not necessarily good information. Thats my belief, I’ve not backtested it. You can maybe backtest and see if you get good results with hourly data. Do share your results 🙂
      2) Yes, that seems intuitive.

  314. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,

    Is there any mathematical analysis available which will indicate if the price of a certain stock for the upcoming 1 min/1 hr/1 day/1 week is likely to make positive or negative returns?

  315. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,

    You have discussed pair trading and few techniques in futures.

    My query- Is it advisable to place trades in futures merely based on Technical analysis? Your viewpoint pls?

  316. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,

    I lack the system which you have shown in Futures for Pair trading etc. Hence, I mean to ask that will it be advisable if I place trade in futures based on Technical (Directional) & taking Fundamental along with it?

  317. Anirban Basak says:

    Sir,

    Based on what you taught in volatility section to find the range of transition for a stock during a particular period, I have prepared a small Mathematical analysis. I would like you to comment if the below could help while placing Trades (spot/Future).

    Scenario: Suppose that a particular stock is falling from its high from 01.01.2020 (stock price-70) to 07.01.2020 (stock price-67).

    (i) On 07.01.2020, it has given a hammer at the low with good volume and support.
    (ii) The stock is backd by good fundamentals.
    (iii) Annual realized volatility for 7 days calculated till 31.12.2019 is 5%. 7 day average return is 3%. Hence, lower range return 3%-5%=-2%. Thus, in general stock price on 07.01.2020 should have minimum value for 70-70*2%=68.6. However, the stock price on 07.01.2020 is 67 (black swan event).
    (iv) Besides, annual realized volatility on 07.01.2020 is greater than calculated 1D annual realized volatility since the past 30 days till 06.01.2020.

    Can I imply here that this type of scenario can indicate Mathematically (along with Technical & good fundamental) that the price can move upward?

  318. Keval says:

    Double diagonal is positive vega strategy while iron condor is negative vega. Which strategy is good in which type of market and when to deploy them ?

    Thanks.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Every startegy has its day in the market, based on the market situation. One strategy does not fit all days 🙂

  319. Rama yadeep says:

    Hi karthik,Really appreciate your effort of making things understandable & sharing a valuable knowledge.I have understood the concept.But i have confusion,How can we know that at the start of the month volatility is high or low.India VIX is trading in different ranges across different months.Do we have any indication like RSI,which gives clear picture like over bought Or oversold.can you please give some detailed undersatnding on this.Thanks in advance

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      One easy way is to look at historical volatility and getting a sense of where Vix is today. Gives a quick perspective.

  320. Jai Pandey says:

    Does premiums change only due to change in implied volatility or also because of changes in realized volatility?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Implied volatility. Realized volatility is backward looking, while implied is forward looking.

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