DCO Butterfly Strategy
DCO (Ducommun Incorporated), in the Industrials sector, (Aerospace & Defense industry), listed on NYSE.
Ducommun Incorporated provides engineering and manufacturing products and services primarily to the aerospace and defense, industrial, medical, and other industries in the United States. It operates through two segments, Electronic Systems and Structural Systems. The Electronic Systems segment provides cable assemblies and interconnect systems; printed circuit board assemblies; higher-level electronic, electromechanical, and mechanical components and assemblies, as well as lightning diversion systems; and radar enclosures, aircraft avionics racks, shipboard communications and control enclosures, shipboard communications and control enclosures, printed circuit board assemblies, cable assemblies, wire harnesses, interconnect systems, lightning diversion strips, surge suppressors, conformal shields, and other assemblies. It also supplies engineered products, including illuminated pushbutton switches and panels for aviation and test systems; microwave and millimeter switches and filters for radio frequency systems and test instrumentation; and motors and resolvers for motion control. In addition, this segment provides engineering expertise for aerospace system design, development, integration, and testing. The Structural Systems segment designs, engineers, and manufactures contoured aluminum, titanium, and Inconel aero structure components; structural assembly products, such as winglets, engine components, and fuselage structural panels; and metal and composite bonded structures and assemblies comprising aircraft wing spoilers, large fuselage skins, rotor blades on rotary-wing aircraft and components, flight control surfaces, engine components, ammunition handling systems, and magnetic seals.
DCO (Ducommun Incorporated) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Aerospace & Defense, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.28B, a beta of 1.07 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 66.12-153.96, average daily share volume of 223K, a public-listing history dating back to 1973, approximately 2K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how DCO stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.07 places DCO roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline.
What is a butterfly on DCO?
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 DCO snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $144.63, ATM IV 39.90%, IV rank 30.85%, expected move 11.44%. The butterfly on DCO 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 DCO specifically: DCO IV at 39.90% 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 11.44% (roughly $16.54 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 DCO expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on DCO should anchor to the underlying notional of $144.63 per share and to the trader's directional view on DCO stock.
DCO butterfly setup
The DCO 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 DCO near $144.63, the first option leg uses a $135.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed DCO 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 DCO shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $135.00 | $13.30 |
| Sell 2 | Call | $145.00 | $7.50 |
| Buy 1 | Call | $150.00 | $4.90 |
DCO butterfly risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$320.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $643.82
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$320.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $138.20
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 2.012
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.
DCO butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on DCO. 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% | -$320.00 |
| $31.99 | -77.9% | -$320.00 |
| $63.96 | -55.8% | -$320.00 |
| $95.94 | -33.7% | -$320.00 |
| $127.92 | -11.6% | -$320.00 |
| $159.90 | +10.6% | +$180.00 |
| $191.87 | +32.7% | +$180.00 |
| $223.85 | +54.8% | +$180.00 |
| $255.83 | +76.9% | +$180.00 |
| $287.81 | +99.0% | +$180.00 |
When traders use butterfly on DCO
Butterflies on DCO are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect DCO 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.
DCO thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for DCO extends from approximately $128.09 on the downside to $161.17 on the upside. A DCO long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if DCO settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. Current DCO IV rank near 30.85% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the butterfly thesis on DCO should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Industrials name, DCO options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to DCO-specific events.
DCO 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. DCO positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move DCO alongside the broader basket even when DCO-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current DCO chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on DCO?
- A butterfly on DCO is the butterfly strategy applied to DCO (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 DCO stock trading near $144.63, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed DCO chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are DCO 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 DCO butterfly priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 39.90%), the computed maximum profit is $643.82 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$320.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a DCO butterfly?
- The breakeven for the DCO butterfly priced on this page is roughly $138.20 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 DCO market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 11.44%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on DCO?
- Butterflies on DCO are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect DCO 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 DCO implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- DCO ATM IV is at 39.90% with IV rank near 30.85%, 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.