ENSG Strangle Strategy
ENSG (The Ensign Group, Inc.), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Care Facilities industry), listed on NASDAQ.
The Ensign Group, Inc. provides health care services in the post-acute care continuum and other ancillary businesses. The company operates in two segments, Skilled Services and Real Estate. The company offers skilled services, which include short and long-term nursing care services for patients with chronic conditions, prolonged illness, and the elderly; and physical, occupational, and speech therapies and other rehabilitative and healthcare services. It also provides standard services, such as room and board, special nutritional programs, social, recreational, entertainment, and other services. In addition, the company offers senior living, as well as mobile diagnostics services; leases real estate properties; and provides other ancillary services consisting of digital x-ray, ultrasound, electrocardiogram, laboratory, sub-acute, and patient transportation services to people in their homes or at long-term care facilities. As of April 4, 2022, it operated 252 healthcare facilities in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin.
ENSG (The Ensign Group, Inc.) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Care Facilities, with a market capitalization of approximately $10.40B, a trailing P/E of 28.30, a beta of 0.73 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 134.79-218, average daily share volume of 402K, a public-listing history dating back to 2007, approximately 39K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how ENSG stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.73 places ENSG roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. ENSG pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a strangle on ENSG?
A long strangle buys an OTM call and an OTM put at offset strikes, cheaper than a straddle but requiring a larger underlying move to profit since both wings start out-of-the-money.
Current ENSG snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $178.11, ATM IV 26.20%, IV rank 34.46%, expected move 7.51%. The strangle on ENSG 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 strangle structure on ENSG specifically: ENSG IV at 26.20% 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 7.51% (roughly $13.38 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 ENSG expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on ENSG should anchor to the underlying notional of $178.11 per share and to the trader's directional view on ENSG stock.
ENSG strangle setup
The ENSG strangle below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With ENSG near $178.11, the first option leg uses a $185.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed ENSG 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 ENSG shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $185.00 | $3.48 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $170.00 | $2.23 |
ENSG strangle risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$570.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$570.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $164.30, $190.70
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- Unbounded
Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the put strike minus the combined debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached anywhere between the two OTM strikes). Two breakevens at call-strike plus debit and put-strike minus debit.
ENSG strangle payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the strangle on ENSG. 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% | +$16,429.00 |
| $39.39 | -77.9% | +$12,491.00 |
| $78.77 | -55.8% | +$8,553.00 |
| $118.15 | -33.7% | +$4,615.00 |
| $157.53 | -11.6% | +$677.00 |
| $196.91 | +10.6% | +$621.00 |
| $236.29 | +32.7% | +$4,559.00 |
| $275.67 | +54.8% | +$8,497.00 |
| $315.05 | +76.9% | +$12,435.00 |
| $354.43 | +99.0% | +$16,373.00 |
When traders use strangle on ENSG
Strangles on ENSG are the cheaper cousin of the straddle - traders use them when they want a large directional move but are willing to give up the inner-strike sensitivity in exchange for a lower up-front debit on the ENSG chain.
ENSG thesis for this strangle
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for ENSG extends from approximately $164.73 on the downside to $191.49 on the upside. A ENSG long strangle is the OTM cousin of the straddle: lower up-front cost but the underlying has to travel further past either OTM strike before the position turns profitable at expiration. Current ENSG IV rank near 34.46% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the strangle thesis on ENSG should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Healthcare name, ENSG options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to ENSG-specific events.
ENSG strangle positions are structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium, OTM); 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. ENSG positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move ENSG alongside the broader basket even when ENSG-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current ENSG chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a strangle on ENSG?
- A strangle on ENSG is the strangle strategy applied to ENSG (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium, OTM): A long strangle buys an OTM call and an OTM put at offset strikes, cheaper than a straddle but requiring a larger underlying move to profit since both wings start out-of-the-money. With ENSG stock trading near $178.11, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed ENSG chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are ENSG strangle max profit and max loss calculated?
- Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the put strike minus the combined debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached anywhere between the two OTM strikes). Two breakevens at call-strike plus debit and put-strike minus debit. For the ENSG strangle priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 26.20%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$570.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a ENSG strangle?
- The breakeven for the ENSG strangle priced on this page is roughly $164.30 and $190.70 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 ENSG market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 7.51%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a strangle on ENSG?
- Strangles on ENSG are the cheaper cousin of the straddle - traders use them when they want a large directional move but are willing to give up the inner-strike sensitivity in exchange for a lower up-front debit on the ENSG chain.
- How does current ENSG implied volatility affect this strangle?
- ENSG ATM IV is at 26.20% with IV rank near 34.46%, 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.