IVolitility.com has been down now for 2 days and since I would like to consider some straddles, it makes me keenly aware of the need for alternative sites.

Larry, do you know of another site to get the same info? I tried Schaffaer, but he only gives trhe current volitility rating and not the high & low - so there's no relative comparison possible.

Thanks,

Wayne

Wayne,

Off hand, I don't know of another free one. Some brokers who specialize in options offer the service, but in lieu of that I know that Optionetics and Larry McMillan at optionstrategist.com, among many others, offer subscription services.

I’ve used Schaeffer’s “option pricing calculator” successfully in the past. It gives you a Black-Scholes estimate of implied volatility in relation to a calculated fair price estimate. All you’re really looking for is some kind of estimate as to whether the option may be relatively cheap or expensive, and you will get different figures from no matter who you use. So I think it’s a good idea to find one service that you like and stick with it.

I’ve never seen I-Volatility go down before, so hopefully they will be up very soon.

The more I think about it, I think maybe the CBOE has a free tool that may offer what you want. Try cboe.com.

Larry

Larry,

Just to clarify - IVolitility site didn't go down - it was Verizon. Here is the explaination from their site:

"Due to a major cable break at Verizon, we lost all communication lines (main as well as backup) to our NY data center.

This resulted in the IVolatility.com website and data service being down for a significant period.

We are making our best effort to resolve this with our communication vendors to bring the IVolatility.com service back to normal."


I didn't mean to cast dispersions; I think it's a super site!

I never thought you were casting despersions. And even if you were, I have no axe to grind about I-Volatility. I'm just one of their (mostly happy) subscribers.

Maybe we should short Verizon

Larry