Quote from sle:
Out of curiosity, what is the base-line front month ATMF implied volatility and it's 1 standard deviation? I would be curious to see what vol-of-vol are we talking about. For comparison, front month ATM vol in SPX is about 12-15 on average, 2008 had brought it up as high as 85.
I have two record sets at hand, with a gap between 2001 and 2004, but they're both large and should give a fair approx of "old" and "new" values. FWIW, like the underlying grain prices, we are now at a higher plateau with IV, but the Std Dev is remarkably stable. That's the raw cut, maybe it would be different if comparing data periods of precisely equal length.
DATA SET NO. 1
Daily Data, file from the CBOT, 28-Feb-1985 (I think that's when grain options began trading) through 15-Mar-2001, 4053 records.
Corn ATM front month mean IV: 21.8%, Std Dev 7.58%, min IV 8.26%, max IV 86.81%.
Soybean ATM front month mean IV: 20.42%, Std Dev 6.82%, min IV 9.12%, max IV 72.8%.
DATA SET NO. 2
Weekly Data, Friday close only, 24-Dec-2004 through 22-Feb-2013, 427 records. Source: MRCI via CRB/BarChart.
Corn ATM two front months mean IV: 32.2%, Std Dev 7.1%, min IV 16.3%, max IV 50.2% (Nov 2008)
Soybean ATM two front months mean IV: 27.4%, Std Dev 7.3%, min IV 16.4%, max IV 50.0% (Mar 2008)