ATM straddle
Straddle chart - the at-the-money straddle, all session
What the at-the-money straddle costs, minute by minute, following the strike as the market moves. Read on its own, or overlaid on the price chart.
- Timeframes
- 1m → 1d
- Rolls with
- ATM strike
- Also on
- Desk header
The cost of the move, in one line
The at-the-money straddle is the call plus the put at the strike nearest the money. It is the cleanest single number for what the market is charging for movement - no direction in it, just the price of the next move.
Plotted through the session it does something a price chart cannot: it decays steadily while the market chops, and lifts the moment a fast leg arrives. When the straddle rises while price goes nowhere, someone is paying up for what is coming.
It rolls, rather than pinning to one strike
A straddle series fixed to this morning’s strike stops being an at-the-money straddle the moment the market moves, and after that it is measuring moneyness rather than volatility.
Here the series follows the at-the-money strike as it changes, so what you are reading is always the cost of the straddle you could actually put on now. The strike it is currently sitting on is shown alongside it.
Overlaid where it is useful
The straddle can be drawn over the candles, so the cost of movement and the movement itself sit on one screen. It is also carried in the desk header beside the future and the at-the-money strike, with the buy and sell side in the tooltip, so it is in front of you without opening a chart at all.
- One minute to one day, same as the price chart
- Buy side and sell side, not just the mid
- Available on every fed chain
Questions
- What does a straddle chart tell you?
- What the market charges for movement, over time. Rising while price is flat means uncertainty is being bid; falling steadily through a quiet session is time decay doing its work.
- Does the straddle follow the at-the-money strike?
- Yes. As the underlying moves and a new strike becomes nearest the money, the series follows it, so it stays a true at-the-money straddle instead of drifting out of the money.
- Can I see the straddle and the price together?
- Yes - the straddle can be overlaid on the candle chart on the future or the cash index, and it also appears in the desk header next to the future and the ATM strike.
- How far back does straddle history go?
- The candle recorder has been running since 13 August 2026, and the straddle is recorded as its own series alongside the future and the index.
Related tools
Market data and analytics are provided for information and research. They are not investment advice and not an offer to buy or sell any security or contract.