Reading the Skew: How Options Volatility Distortions Signal Trades That Standard Charts Will Never Show You
Volatility skew is one of the most information-dense signals available to the active options trader, yet it remains largely invisible to participants who confine their analysis to price charts and technical indicators. When the market prices downside protection at a steep premium to equivalent upside exposure, it is communicating something specific about collective fear, positioning, and the asymmetric distribution of expected outcomes—and that communication creates exploitable edges for traders