FISI Butterfly Strategy
FISI (Financial Institutions, Inc.), in the Financial Services sector, (Banks - Regional industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Financial Institutions, Inc. operates as a holding company for the Five Star Bank, a chartered bank that provides banking and financial services to individuals, municipalities, and businesses in New York. The company offers checking and savings account programs, including money market accounts, certificates of deposit, sweep investments, and individual retirement and other qualified plan accounts. Its loan products include term loans and lines of credit; short and medium-term commercial loans for working capital, business expansion, and purchase of equipment; commercial business loans to the agricultural industry; commercial mortgage loans; one-to-four family residential mortgage loans, home improvement loans, closed-end home equity loans, and home equity lines of credit; and consumer loans, such as automobile, secured installment, and personal loans. The company also provides personal insurance products, including automobile, homeowners, boat, recreational vehicle, landlord, and umbrella coverage; commercial insurance comprising property, liability, automobile, inland marine, workers compensation, bonds, crop, and umbrella insurance products; and financial services comprising life and disability insurance, medicare supplements, long-term care, annuities, mutual funds, and retirement programs. In addition, it offers customized investment advisory, wealth management, investment consulting, and retirement plan services, as well as operates a real estate investment trust that holds residential mortgages and commercial real estate loans. The company operates a network of 48 banking offices in Allegany, Cattaraugus, Cayuga, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates counties, New York.
FISI (Financial Institutions, Inc.) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Banks - Regional, with a market capitalization of approximately $674.1M, a trailing P/E of 8.52, a beta of 0.65 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 24.41-35.7, average daily share volume of 129K, a public-listing history dating back to 1999, approximately 598 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how FISI stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.65 indicates FISI has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. The trailing P/E of 8.52 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price. FISI pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a butterfly on FISI?
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 FISI snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $33.94, ATM IV 45.80%, IV rank 14.09%, expected move 13.13%. The butterfly on FISI 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 FISI specifically: FISI IV at 45.80% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a FISI butterfly, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 13.13% (roughly $4.46 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 FISI expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on FISI should anchor to the underlying notional of $33.94 per share and to the trader's directional view on FISI stock.
FISI butterfly setup
The FISI 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 FISI near $33.94, the first option leg uses a $32.24 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed FISI 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 FISI shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $32.24 | N/A |
| Sell 2 | Call | $33.94 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Call | $35.64 | N/A |
FISI 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.
FISI butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on FISI. 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 FISI
Butterflies on FISI are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect FISI 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.
FISI thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for FISI extends from approximately $29.48 on the downside to $38.40 on the upside. A FISI long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if FISI settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. Current FISI IV rank near 14.09% 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 FISI at 45.80%. As a Financial Services name, FISI options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to FISI-specific events.
FISI 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. FISI positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move FISI alongside the broader basket even when FISI-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current FISI chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on FISI?
- A butterfly on FISI is the butterfly strategy applied to FISI (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 FISI stock trading near $33.94, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed FISI chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are FISI 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 FISI butterfly priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 45.80%), 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 FISI butterfly?
- The breakeven for the FISI 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 FISI market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 13.13%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on FISI?
- Butterflies on FISI are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect FISI 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 FISI implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- FISI ATM IV is at 45.80% with IV rank near 14.09%, 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.