CMRE Butterfly Strategy
CMRE (Costamare Inc.), in the Industrials sector, (Marine Shipping industry), listed on NYSE.
Costamare Inc. owns and charters containerships to liner companies worldwide. As of March 18, 2022, it had a fleet of 76 containerships with a total capacity of approximately 557,400 twenty-foot equivalent units and 45 dry bulk vessels with a total capacity of approximately 2,435,500 DWT. The company was founded in 1974 and is based in Monaco.
CMRE (Costamare Inc.) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Marine Shipping, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.03B, a trailing P/E of 5.87, a beta of 1.00 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 8.19-18.06, average daily share volume of 445K, a public-listing history dating back to 2010, approximately 2K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how CMRE stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.00 places CMRE roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. The trailing P/E of 5.87 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price. CMRE pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a butterfly on CMRE?
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 CMRE snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $17.18, ATM IV 38.90%, IV rank 38.21%, expected move 11.15%. The butterfly on CMRE 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 CMRE specifically: CMRE IV at 38.90% 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 11.15% (roughly $1.92 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 CMRE expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on CMRE should anchor to the underlying notional of $17.18 per share and to the trader's directional view on CMRE stock.
CMRE butterfly setup
The CMRE 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 CMRE near $17.18, the first option leg uses a $16.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed CMRE 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 CMRE shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $16.00 | $1.53 |
| Sell 2 | Call | $17.00 | $0.90 |
| Buy 1 | Call | $18.00 | $0.48 |
CMRE butterfly risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$20.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $72.61
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$20.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $16.20, $17.80
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 3.630
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.
CMRE butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on CMRE. 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% | -$20.00 |
| $3.81 | -77.8% | -$20.00 |
| $7.60 | -55.7% | -$20.00 |
| $11.40 | -33.6% | -$20.00 |
| $15.20 | -11.5% | -$20.00 |
| $19.00 | +10.6% | -$20.00 |
| $22.79 | +32.7% | -$20.00 |
| $26.59 | +54.8% | -$20.00 |
| $30.39 | +76.9% | -$20.00 |
| $34.19 | +99.0% | -$20.00 |
When traders use butterfly on CMRE
Butterflies on CMRE are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect CMRE 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.
CMRE thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for CMRE extends from approximately $15.26 on the downside to $19.10 on the upside. A CMRE long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if CMRE settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. Current CMRE IV rank near 38.21% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the butterfly thesis on CMRE should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Industrials name, CMRE options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to CMRE-specific events.
CMRE 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. CMRE positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move CMRE alongside the broader basket even when CMRE-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current CMRE chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on CMRE?
- A butterfly on CMRE is the butterfly strategy applied to CMRE (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 CMRE stock trading near $17.18, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed CMRE chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are CMRE 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 CMRE butterfly priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 38.90%), the computed maximum profit is $72.61 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$20.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a CMRE butterfly?
- The breakeven for the CMRE butterfly priced on this page is roughly $16.20 and $17.80 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 CMRE market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 11.15%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on CMRE?
- Butterflies on CMRE are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect CMRE 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 CMRE implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- CMRE ATM IV is at 38.90% with IV rank near 38.21%, 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.