Twenty-one options underlyings where premium stood out on 23 October

Implied-volatility ranks are useful for screening option chains, but they do not predict the next market move.

• Home Depot and Lowe’s became materially more expensive relative to their own one-year histories: their ranks rose to 89.8 and 93.8, up 24.8 and 17.6 points respectively over five sessions, without a verified company event.
• Marathon Petroleum and Brembo reached the top of their one-year ranges, with IV ranks of 100.0; Marathon Petroleum’s results were scheduled for 3 November, within the 20 November expiry.
• In the euro zone, SES had an IV of 69.4 and a 98.7 rank, while Evotec reached an IV of 79.1 and a 91.0 rank; the screen excluded names with fewer than seven expiries or a 30 October front expiry.
• Newmont had the lowest rank among 187 US names at 0.0 despite an absolute IV of 38.7, while Tesla’s rank fell 37.9 points to 10.4 over five sessions.
• Rank and percentile can diverge: BBVA showed a rank of 100.0 but a percentile of 46.8, whereas SPY showed a rank of 28.7 and a percentile of 72.2, reflecting possible thin histories or old volatility spikes.

Takeaway: The screen should identify names for further chain analysis, not generate trades; spreads, open interest, dividends and the catalyst calendar still matter, and elevated or cheap implied volatility says nothing by itself about future returns.