USLV Butterfly Strategy
USLV (Direxion Daily Silver Bull 2X ETF), in the Financial Services sector, (Asset Management industry), listed on AMEX.
VelocityShares 3x Long Silver ETN Linked to the S&P GSCI Silver Index ER. Delisted by Credit Suisse AG on July 2, 2020. No longer actively trading on exchanges and has no current business operations as a financial product.
USLV (Direxion Daily Silver Bull 2X ETF) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Asset Management, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.9M, a beta of 0.00 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 11.97-24.49, average daily share volume of 126K, a public-listing history dating back to 2026. These structural characteristics shape how USLV etf options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.00 indicates USLV has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. USLV pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a butterfly on USLV?
A long call butterfly buys one lower-strike call, sells two ATM calls, and buys one higher-strike call, paying a small net debit for a defined-risk position that maxes out if the underlying pins the middle strike at expiration.
USLV snapshot
As of September 29, 2026, spot at $14.04, ATM IV 70.20%, expected move 20.13%. The butterfly on USLV below is built from the September 29, 2026 end-of-day chain, with strikes snapped to listed contracts and premiums pulled from the bid/ask midpoint at a 17-day expiry.
Why this butterfly structure on USLV specifically: IV rank is unavailable in the current snapshot, so regime-based timing for USLV is inferred from ATM IV at 70.20% alone, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 20.13% (roughly $2.83 on the underlying). The 17-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated USLV expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on USLV should anchor to the underlying notional of $14.04 per share and to the trader's directional view on USLV etf.
USLV butterfly setup
The USLV butterfly below is built from the September 29, 2026 end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With USLV at $14.04 on that close, the first option leg uses a $13.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed USLV chain at a 17-day expiry; the cross-strike IV skew is reflected directly in the per-leg values rather than approximated. Quantity sizing assumes one contract per option leg (or 100 USLV shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $13.00 | $1.40 |
| Sell 2 | Call | $14.00 | $0.88 |
| Buy 1 | Call | $15.00 | $0.43 |
USLV butterfly risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$7.50
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $89.95
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$7.50
- Breakeven(s)
- $13.07, $14.93
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 11.993
Max profit equals the wing width minus net debit times 100 (reached when the underlying pins the middle strike); max loss equals the net debit times 100. Two breakevens at lower-wing plus debit and upper-wing minus debit.
USLV butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on USLV. Each row is one sampled price point from the computed payoff curve; the full curve uses 200 price points internally before being summarized into 10 rows here.
| Underlying Price | % From Spot | P&L at Expiration |
|---|---|---|
| $0.01 | -99.9% | -$7.50 |
| $3.11 | -77.8% | -$7.50 |
| $6.22 | -55.7% | -$7.50 |
| $9.32 | -33.6% | -$7.50 |
| $12.42 | -11.5% | -$7.50 |
| $15.53 | +10.6% | -$7.50 |
| $18.63 | +32.7% | -$7.50 |
| $21.73 | +54.8% | -$7.50 |
| $24.84 | +76.9% | -$7.50 |
| $27.94 | +99.0% | -$7.50 |
When traders use butterfly on USLV
Butterflies on USLV are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect USLV to settle near a specific level at expiration (often the prior close, a round number, or the max-pain strike) and want defined-risk exposure to that outcome.
USLV thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for USLV extends from approximately $11.21 on the downside to $16.87 on the upside. A USLV long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if USLV settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. As a Financial Services name, USLV options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to USLV-specific events.
USLV butterfly positions are structurally neutral / pin (limited-risk, limited-reward); the modeled P&L assumes European-style exercise at expiration and ignores early assignment, transaction costs, dividends paid before expiry on the stock leg (when present), and the bid-ask spread on the listed chain. USLV positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move USLV alongside the broader basket even when USLV-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current USLV chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on USLV?
- A butterfly on USLV is the butterfly strategy applied to USLV (etf). The strategy is structurally neutral / pin (limited-risk, limited-reward): A long call butterfly buys one lower-strike call, sells two ATM calls, and buys one higher-strike call, paying a small net debit for a defined-risk position that maxes out if the underlying pins the middle strike at expiration. With USLV etf at $14.04 on the September 29, 2026 close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed USLV chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
- How are USLV butterfly max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals the wing width minus net debit times 100 (reached when the underlying pins the middle strike); max loss equals the net debit times 100. Two breakevens at lower-wing plus debit and upper-wing minus debit. For the USLV butterfly priced from the September 29, 2026 end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 70.20%), the computed maximum profit is $89.95 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$7.50 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a USLV butterfly?
- The breakeven for the USLV butterfly priced on this page is roughly $13.07 and $14.93 at expiration, derived from the September 29, 2026 end-of-day chain's premiums. Breakeven is the underlying price at which the strategy's P&L crosses zero ignoring transaction costs and assignment risk. The USLV market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 20.13%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on USLV?
- Butterflies on USLV are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect USLV to settle near a specific level at expiration (often the prior close, a round number, or the max-pain strike) and want defined-risk exposure to that outcome.
- How does current USLV implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- Current USLV ATM IV is 70.20%; IV rank context is unavailable in the current snapshot.