Realized Volatility Statistics: Sector RV, Breadth and Market Regimes
By VolRadar Editorial · reviewed May 2026
Median 20-day realized volatility sits at 38.8% — a elevated rv reading. Breadth at 49.9% above median shows the move is moderately broad rather than isolated. Information Technology leads at 59.1% while Utilities sits at 27.3% — sector selection still matters. Recent S&P 500 price moves remain elevated — this does not automatically imply an active options-stress alert.
Source: VolRadar-computed aggregates from underlying price data · 2026-06-02
Realized volatility by S&P 500 sector
Average annualized Yang-Zhang realized volatility over the trailing 20 trading days, by GICS sector. Higher means the sector’s underlying prices have moved more.
RV20 shown — use the table for RV10 / RV60 comparison.
View full sector table (RV 10d / 20d / 60d + symbols)⌄
| Sector | RV 10d | RV 20d | RV 60d | Symbols |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Information Technology | 56.7% | 59.1% | 47.5% | 69 |
| Consumer Discretionary | 49.0% | 47.0% | 36.6% | 47 |
| Health Care | 40.9% | 44.8% | 35.4% | 57 |
| Materials | 41.9% | 42.6% | 34.2% | 25 |
| Industrials | 41.8% | 41.5% | 33.0% | 77 |
| Energy | 44.4% | 41.2% | 35.3% | 21 |
| Communication Services | 37.1% | 39.9% | 42.0% | 21 |
| Consumer Staples | 41.9% | 39.0% | 30.2% | 34 |
| Financials | 36.6% | 38.3% | 30.1% | 70 |
| Real Estate | 36.8% | 34.1% | 27.4% | 30 |
| Utilities | 29.0% | 27.3% | 23.0% | 30 |
How to read this page
- RV10 / RV20 / RV60 — trailing realized-volatility windows, annualized.
- Breadth — share of S&P 500 names above the cross-sectional median RV20.
- Dispersion — cross-sectional standard deviation of RV20.
- Regime — compressed (<12%), normal (12–22%), elevated (>22%) on median RV20.
Full calculation details and corrections policy: Realized Volatility (Yang-Zhang). This page shows aggregates only — no raw contract-level data or bulk-export feeds.
Source: VolRadar-computed aggregates from underlying price data.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between realized and implied volatility?
Realized volatility (RV) measures how much an underlying's price has actually moved over a trailing window — it is backward-looking by definition. Implied volatility (IV) is the volatility the options market expects going forward, priced into every contract. The gap between them — the volatility risk premium — is what premium-sellers harvest. Both are reported here and on the sister Implied Volatility Statistics pillar.
Why Yang–Zhang realized volatility?
Yang–Zhang is an open-high-low-close (OHLC) RV estimator that combines overnight gaps and within-session range components, so it captures gap moves a close-to-close estimator misses. We compute it nightly per S&P 500 underlying on 10-, 20- and 60-day windows, annualize on a 252-day basis, and average within each GICS sector for the sector chart.
What does the breadth percentage mean?
Breadth is the share of S&P 500 names trading above the cross-sectional median 20-day RV. A high breadth reading means the realized-volatility move is broad rather than carried by a few outliers; a low reading means the move is concentrated. Read it alongside dispersion (cross-sectional standard deviation of RV20) to see whether sectors are moving in sync.
How is the realized-vol regime classified?
The regime label keys off the cross-sectional median 20-day RV: compressed (<12%), normal (12–22%), Elevated RV (>22%). It is a context tag, not a forecast — designed to make a one-glance read possible without forcing a numeric comparison every time.
How fresh is the data?
Once per US trading-day close. The 'Data as of' line shows the latest verified snapshot date; the pipeline recomputes after the closing bell and writes through to this page. If the daily refresh is delayed, the page shows the last validated snapshot in a delayed-data banner rather than going blank.
How does the realized-vol regime relate to Market Stress?
They are independent signals. Realized-vol regime measures what S&P 500 prices have already done (backward-looking, sector-broad). Market Stress measures forward-looking mega-cap options-skew alerts on AAPL · MSFT · NVDA · GOOG · AMZN — a different indicator on a different basket. Elevated RV can persist without an active Market Stress alert, and vice versa. Open Market Stress for the live alert status.
Market Stress
View today’s Market Stress →Track the current mega-cap options-skew alert status and volatility-term-structure context. Updated daily after market close.