CLW Butterfly Strategy
CLW (Clearwater Paper Corporation), in the Basic Materials sector, (Paper, Lumber & Forest Products industry), listed on NYSE.
Clearwater Paper Corporation manufactures and supplies bleached paperboards, and consumer and parent roll tissues in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Pulp and Paperboard, and Consumer Products. The Pulp and Paperboard segment offers folding cartons, liquid packaging, cups and plates, blister and carded packaging products, top sheet and commercial printing items, and softwood pulp products, as well as custom sheeting, slitting, and cutting of paperboard products. It sells its products to packaging converters, folding carton converters, merchants, and commercial printers. The Consumer Products segment provides a line of at-home tissue products, including bath tissues, paper towels, facial tissues, and napkins; recycled fiber value grade products; and away-from-home tissues. This segment sells its products to retailers and wholesale distributors, including grocery, club, mass merchants, and discount stores.
CLW (Clearwater Paper Corporation) trades in the Basic Materials sector, specifically Paper, Lumber & Forest Products, with a market capitalization of approximately $217.9M, a beta of 0.21 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 11.73-30.96, average daily share volume of 225K, a public-listing history dating back to 2008, approximately 2K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how CLW stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.21 indicates CLW has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure.
What is a butterfly on CLW?
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 CLW snapshot
As of May 14, 2026, spot at $13.66, ATM IV 71.50%, IV rank 18.70%, expected move 20.50%. The butterfly on CLW 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 35-day expiry.
Why this butterfly structure on CLW specifically: CLW IV at 71.50% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a CLW butterfly, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 20.50% (roughly $2.80 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 CLW expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on CLW should anchor to the underlying notional of $13.66 per share and to the trader's directional view on CLW stock.
CLW butterfly setup
The CLW 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 CLW near $13.66, the first option leg uses a $12.98 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed CLW 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 CLW shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $12.98 | N/A |
| Sell 2 | Call | $13.66 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Call | $14.34 | N/A |
CLW 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.
CLW butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on CLW. 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 CLW
Butterflies on CLW are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect CLW 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.
CLW thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for CLW extends from approximately $10.86 on the downside to $16.46 on the upside. A CLW long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if CLW settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. Current CLW IV rank near 18.70% 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 CLW at 71.50%. As a Basic Materials name, CLW options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to CLW-specific events.
CLW 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. CLW positions also carry Basic Materials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move CLW alongside the broader basket even when CLW-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current CLW chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on CLW?
- A butterfly on CLW is the butterfly strategy applied to CLW (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 CLW stock trading near $13.66, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed CLW chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are CLW 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 CLW butterfly priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 71.50%), 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 CLW butterfly?
- The breakeven for the CLW 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 CLW market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 20.50%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on CLW?
- Butterflies on CLW are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect CLW 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 CLW implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- CLW ATM IV is at 71.50% with IV rank near 18.70%, 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.