While broad market implied volatility has basically been absent (we had one VIX pop to ~20 on 9/12, after which it has receded dramatically), it has remained in the same place as it has for the past several weeks -- in gold, mining, and oil and gas, with a smattering of high IV in individual biotech issues.
Here are the top high IV stock and ETF options as of Friday close, screened for good liquidity:
NVAX (biotech) (134.9%) VRX (biotech) (80.0%) GPRO ("gadgets") (80.0%) WLL (oil and gas) (79.9%) CHK (oil and gas) (79.4%) CLF (mining) (73.1%) AG (silver miner) (70.8%) AMD (semicon) (68.9%) TWTR (66.5%) (M&A rumor) ESV (oil and gas) (65.2%)
GDX (gold miner ETF) (42.8%) XME (mining ETF) (37.6%) XOP (oil and gas ETF) (36.9%)
In comparison, SPY implied volatility currently stands at 13.1%; DIA, 13.2%; QQQ, 14.7%; and IWM, 17.7%.
Unfortunately, this makes selling premium a touch frustrating here (at least for me), since I'm already in NVAX, CHK, WLL, CLF, AG, AMD, and GDX, and there is some correlation between GDX and XME, so I don't necessarily want to pile into more individual miners -- whether they be gold, silver, or otherwise. Additionally, I think my "petro boat" is fairly full here, too.
At least for me, it's probably a bit of hand-sitting (although I could "dabble" with GPRO or VRX) until something pops to the forefront ... . In any event, can't hurt to have dry powder running into these "little elections."