AMSC Butterfly Strategy

AMSC (American Superconductor Corporation), in the Industrials sector, (Electrical Equipment & Parts industry), listed on NASDAQ.

American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC), along with its affiliated entities, delivers robust, large-scale power infrastructure and resiliency solutions across the globe. Its operations are primarily divided into two distinct segments: Grid and Wind. The Grid segment, marketed under the Gridtec Solutions brand, supplies essential products and services designed to empower electric utilities, industrial operations, and renewable energy developers. These offerings facilitate the seamless connection, transmission, and distribution of electrical power, complemented by expert engineering and planning services. Within this segment, AMSC delivers transmission planning to diagnose issues like grid congestion, suboptimal power quality, and other systemic vulnerabilities. It provides critical grid interconnection solutions for large-scale renewable projects like wind and solar farms, alongside comprehensive power quality and transmission & distribution (T&D) cable systems.

AMSC (American Superconductor Corporation) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Electrical Equipment & Parts, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.56B, a trailing P/E of 10.87, a beta of 3.28 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 24.87-70.49, average daily share volume of 1.1M, a public-listing history dating back to 1991, approximately 1K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how AMSC stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.

A beta of 3.28 indicates AMSC has historically moved more than the broader market, amplifying both the directional payoff and the realized volatility relative to an index-equivalent position. The trailing P/E of 10.87 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price.

What is a butterfly on AMSC?

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.

AMSC snapshot

As of August 14, 2026, spot at $31.86, ATM IV 75.30%, IV rank 20.76%, expected move 21.59%. The butterfly on AMSC below is built from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain, with strikes snapped to listed contracts and premiums pulled from the bid/ask midpoint at a 35-day expiry.

Why this butterfly structure on AMSC specifically: AMSC IV at 75.30% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a AMSC butterfly, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 21.59% (roughly $6.88 on the underlying). The 35-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated AMSC expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on AMSC should anchor to the underlying notional of $31.86 per share and to the trader's directional view on AMSC stock.

AMSC butterfly setup

The AMSC butterfly below is built from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With AMSC at $31.86 on that close, the first option leg uses a $30.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed AMSC chain at a 35-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 AMSC shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).

ActionTypeStrike / BasisPremium (est)
Buy 1Call$30.00$4.05
Sell 2Call$32.00$2.95
Buy 1Call$33.00$2.53

AMSC butterfly risk and reward

Net Premium / Debit
-$67.50
Max Profit (per contract)
$129.99
Max Loss (per contract)
-$67.50
Breakeven(s)
$30.68
Risk / Reward Ratio
1.926

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.

AMSC butterfly payoff curve

Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on AMSC. 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.

AMSC butterfly profit and loss curve at expiration with breakevens and current spot markedAMSC butterfly payoff at expiration-$50$0$50$100$10$20$30$40$50$60Underlying Price ($)P&L at Expiration ($)BE $30.68Spot $31.86
P&L at expiration across the modeled underlying-price range. Green shading marks profitable regions, red shading marks loss regions. Dotted purple verticals mark breakevens; the solid dark vertical marks current spot.
Underlying Price% From SpotP&L at Expiration
$0.01-100.0%-$67.50
$7.05-77.9%-$67.50
$14.10-55.8%-$67.50
$21.14-33.6%-$67.50
$28.18-11.5%-$67.50
$35.23+10.6%+$32.50
$42.27+32.7%+$32.50
$49.31+54.8%+$32.50
$56.36+76.9%+$32.50
$63.40+99.0%+$32.50

When traders use butterfly on AMSC

Butterflies on AMSC are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect AMSC 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.

AMSC thesis for this butterfly

The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for AMSC extends from approximately $24.98 on the downside to $38.74 on the upside. A AMSC long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if AMSC settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. Current AMSC IV rank near 20.76% sits in the lower third of its 1-year distribution, where IV often re-expands toward the mean; this favors premium-buying structures and disadvantages premium-selling structures on AMSC at 75.30%. As a Industrials name, AMSC options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to AMSC-specific events.

AMSC 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. AMSC positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move AMSC alongside the broader basket even when AMSC-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current AMSC chain quotes before placing a trade.

Frequently asked questions

What is a butterfly on AMSC?
A butterfly on AMSC is the butterfly strategy applied to AMSC (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 AMSC stock at $31.86 on the August 14, 2026 close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed AMSC chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
How are AMSC 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 AMSC butterfly priced from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 75.30%), the computed maximum profit is $129.99 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$67.50 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
What is the breakeven for a AMSC butterfly?
The breakeven for the AMSC butterfly priced on this page is roughly $30.68 at expiration, derived from the August 14, 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 AMSC market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 21.59%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
When should you consider a butterfly on AMSC?
Butterflies on AMSC are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect AMSC 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 AMSC implied volatility affect this butterfly?
AMSC ATM IV is at 75.30% with IV rank near 20.76%, which is on the low end of its 1-year range. Premium-buying structures (long call, long put, debit spreads) are relatively cheap in this regime; premium-selling structures collect less credit per unit risk.

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