CI Bull Call Spread Strategy
CI (Cigna Corporation), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Healthcare Plans industry), listed on NYSE.
The Cigna Group provides insurance and related products and services in the United States. Its Evernorth segment provides a range of coordinated and point solution health services, including pharmacy, benefits management, care delivery and management, and intelligence solutions to health plans, employers, government organizations, and health care providers. The company's Cigna Healthcare segment offers medical, pharmacy, behavioral health, dental, vision, health advocacy programs, and other products and services for insured and self-insured customers; Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement, and Medicare Part D plans for seniors, as well as individual health insurance plans to on and off the public exchanges; and health care coverage in its international markets, as well as health care benefits for mobile individuals and employees of multinational organizations. The company also offers permanent insurance contracts sold to corporations to provide coverage on the lives of certain employees for financing employer-paid future benefit obligations. It distributes its products and services through insurance brokers and consultants; directly to employers, unions and other groups, or individuals; and private and public exchanges. The company was founded in 1792 and is headquartered in Bloomfield, Connecticut.
CI (Cigna Corporation) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Healthcare Plans, with a market capitalization of approximately $79.55B, a trailing P/E of 12.56, a beta of 0.31 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 239.51-338.89, average daily share volume of 1.8M, a public-listing history dating back to 1982, approximately 71K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how CI stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.31 indicates CI has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. CI pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a bull call spread on CI?
A bull call spread buys an at-the-money call and sells an out-of-the-money call at a higher strike for defined risk and defined reward bounded by the strike width.
Current CI snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $286.23, ATM IV 27.87%, IV rank 27.17%, expected move 7.99%. The bull call spread on CI 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 28-day expiry.
Why this bull call spread structure on CI specifically: CI IV at 27.87% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a CI bull call spread, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 7.99% (roughly $22.87 on the underlying). The 28-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated CI expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on CI should anchor to the underlying notional of $286.23 per share and to the trader's directional view on CI stock.
CI bull call spread setup
The CI bull call spread below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With CI near $286.23, the first option leg uses a $285.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed CI chain at a 28-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 CI shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $285.00 | $9.55 |
| Sell 1 | Call | $300.00 | $3.30 |
CI bull call spread risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$625.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $875.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$625.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $291.25
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 1.400
Max profit equals strike width minus net debit times 100; max loss equals net debit times 100. Breakeven is long-call strike plus net debit.
CI bull call spread payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the bull call spread on CI. 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 | -100.0% | -$625.00 |
| $63.30 | -77.9% | -$625.00 |
| $126.58 | -55.8% | -$625.00 |
| $189.87 | -33.7% | -$625.00 |
| $253.15 | -11.6% | -$625.00 |
| $316.44 | +10.6% | +$875.00 |
| $379.73 | +32.7% | +$875.00 |
| $443.01 | +54.8% | +$875.00 |
| $506.30 | +76.9% | +$875.00 |
| $569.58 | +99.0% | +$875.00 |
When traders use bull call spread on CI
Bull call spreads on CI reduce the cost of a bullish CI stock position by selling a higher-strike call; suited to moderate-move theses where price reaches but does not vastly exceed the short strike.
CI thesis for this bull call spread
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for CI extends from approximately $263.36 on the downside to $309.10 on the upside. A CI bull call spread caps both the risk and the reward of a bullish position; relative to an outright long call on CI, the spread reduces the cost basis but limits the maximum profit to the strike width minus net debit. Current CI IV rank near 27.17% 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 CI at 27.87%. As a Healthcare name, CI options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to CI-specific events.
CI bull call spread positions are structurally moderately bullish; 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. CI positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move CI alongside the broader basket even when CI-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a bull call spread on CI are particularly exposed to IV-crush risk through scheduled events (earnings, FDA decisions, central-bank meetings) where IV typically contracts post-event regardless of the directional outcome. Always rebuild the position from current CI chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a bull call spread on CI?
- A bull call spread on CI is the bull call spread strategy applied to CI (stock). The strategy is structurally moderately bullish: A bull call spread buys an at-the-money call and sells an out-of-the-money call at a higher strike for defined risk and defined reward bounded by the strike width. With CI stock trading near $286.23, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed CI chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are CI bull call spread max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals strike width minus net debit times 100; max loss equals net debit times 100. Breakeven is long-call strike plus net debit. For the CI bull call spread priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 27.87%), the computed maximum profit is $875.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$625.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a CI bull call spread?
- The breakeven for the CI bull call spread priced on this page is roughly $291.25 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 CI market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 7.99%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a bull call spread on CI?
- Bull call spreads on CI reduce the cost of a bullish CI stock position by selling a higher-strike call; suited to moderate-move theses where price reaches but does not vastly exceed the short strike.
- How does current CI implied volatility affect this bull call spread?
- CI ATM IV is at 27.87% with IV rank near 27.17%, 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.