ACT Butterfly Strategy
ACT (Enact Holdings, Inc.), in the Financial Services sector, (Insurance - Specialty industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Enact Holdings, Inc. operates as a private mortgage insurance company in the United States. The company is involved in writing and assuming residential mortgage guaranty insurance. It offers private mortgage insurance products primarily insuring prime-based, individually underwritten residential mortgage loans; and contract underwriting services for mortgage lenders. The company was formerly known as Genworth Mortgage Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Enact Holdings, Inc. in May 2021. Enact Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. Enact Holdings, Inc. is a subsidiary of Genworth Holdings, Inc.
ACT (Enact Holdings, Inc.) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Insurance - Specialty, with a market capitalization of approximately $5.96B, a trailing P/E of 8.93, a beta of 0.50 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 33.94-44.8, average daily share volume of 310K, a public-listing history dating back to 2021, approximately 421 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how ACT stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.50 indicates ACT has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. The trailing P/E of 8.93 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price. ACT pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a butterfly on ACT?
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.
Current ACT snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $43.03, ATM IV 44.20%, IV rank 33.36%, expected move 12.67%. The butterfly on ACT below is built from the same end-of-day chain, with strikes snapped to listed contracts and premiums pulled from the bid/ask midpoint at a 34-day expiry.
Why this butterfly structure on ACT specifically: ACT IV at 44.20% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so strategy selection should anchor more to the directional thesis than to the IV regime, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 12.67% (roughly $5.45 on the underlying). The 34-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated ACT expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on ACT should anchor to the underlying notional of $43.03 per share and to the trader's directional view on ACT stock.
ACT butterfly setup
The ACT butterfly below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With ACT near $43.03, the first option leg uses a $40.88 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed ACT chain at a 34-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 ACT shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $40.88 | N/A |
| Sell 2 | Call | $43.03 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Call | $45.18 | N/A |
ACT butterfly risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- N/A
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Breakeven(s)
- None on modeled curve
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- N/A
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.
ACT butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on ACT. 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.
When traders use butterfly on ACT
Butterflies on ACT are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect ACT 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.
ACT thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for ACT extends from approximately $37.58 on the downside to $48.48 on the upside. A ACT long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if ACT settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. Current ACT IV rank near 33.36% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the butterfly thesis on ACT should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Financial Services name, ACT options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to ACT-specific events.
ACT 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. ACT positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move ACT alongside the broader basket even when ACT-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current ACT chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on ACT?
- A butterfly on ACT is the butterfly strategy applied to ACT (stock). 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 ACT stock trading near $43.03, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed ACT chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are ACT 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 ACT butterfly priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 44.20%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is unbounded per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a ACT butterfly?
- The breakeven for the ACT butterfly priced on this page is no defined breakeven on the modeled curve at expiration, derived from end-of-day chain premiums. Breakeven is the underlying price at which the strategy's P&L crosses zero ignoring transaction costs and assignment risk. The current ACT market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 12.67%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on ACT?
- Butterflies on ACT are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect ACT 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 ACT implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- ACT ATM IV is at 44.20% with IV rank near 33.36%, which is mid-range against its 1-year history. Strategy selection depends more on directional thesis and expected move than on a strong IV signal.