In this viewer Q&A, Chris Vecchio and Liz Dierking take two questions that trip up a lot of options traders. First: does a dividend change how puts and calls are priced? The short answer is yes, mechanically, calls get a little cheaper and puts a little more expensive around the dividend, but there's no free lunch and nothing to arbitrage. The one thing worth watching is a short in-the-money call whose extrinsic value is less than the dividend, which is where early-assignment risk actually shows up. Chris's rule: don't let trades expire on dividend dates, payrolls days, or Fed days, and staying inside 21 days to expiration keeps you out of most of the trouble. Then the bigger one: why is implied volatility elevated on a stock that's barely moved in weeks? It feels like free money, which usually means it isn't. Liz's answer is blunt, the market is smarter than you, and elevated IV with no movement means it's waiting on something, a pending drug decision, a data release, a catalyst that...