IMKTA Butterfly Strategy
IMKTA (Ingles Markets, Incorporated), in the Consumer Defensive sector, (Grocery Stores industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Ingles Markets, Incorporated operates a chain of supermarkets in the southeast United States. It offers food products, including grocery, meat and dairy products, produce, frozen foods, and other perishables; and non-food products, which include fuel centers, pharmacies, health and beauty care products, and general merchandise, as well as private label items. The company also owns and operates a milk processing and packaging plant that supplies organic milk, fruit juices, and bottled water products to other retailers, food service distributors, and grocery warehouses. In addition, it provides home meal replacement items, delicatessens, bakeries, floral departments, and greeting cards, as well as broad selections of local organic, beverage, and health-related items. As of September 25, 2021, the company operated 189 supermarkets under the brand name Ingles, and nine supermarkets under the brand name Sav-Mor in western North Carolina, western South Carolina, northern Georgia, eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia, and northeastern Alabama, as well as 111 pharmacies and 107 fuel stations. Ingles Markets, Incorporated was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.
IMKTA (Ingles Markets, Incorporated) trades in the Consumer Defensive sector, specifically Grocery Stores, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.62B, a trailing P/E of 15.52, a beta of 0.62 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 59.09-95.62, average daily share volume of 137K, a public-listing history dating back to 1987, approximately 11K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how IMKTA stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.62 indicates IMKTA has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. IMKTA pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a butterfly on IMKTA?
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 IMKTA snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $85.91, ATM IV 28.30%, IV rank 4.72%, expected move 8.11%. The butterfly on IMKTA 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 IMKTA specifically: IMKTA IV at 28.30% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a IMKTA butterfly, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 8.11% (roughly $6.97 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 IMKTA expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on IMKTA should anchor to the underlying notional of $85.91 per share and to the trader's directional view on IMKTA stock.
IMKTA butterfly setup
The IMKTA 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 IMKTA near $85.91, the first option leg uses a $81.61 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed IMKTA 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 IMKTA shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $81.61 | N/A |
| Sell 2 | Call | $85.91 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Call | $90.21 | N/A |
IMKTA 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.
IMKTA butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on IMKTA. 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 IMKTA
Butterflies on IMKTA are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect IMKTA 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.
IMKTA thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for IMKTA extends from approximately $78.94 on the downside to $92.88 on the upside. A IMKTA long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if IMKTA settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. Current IMKTA IV rank near 4.72% 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 IMKTA at 28.30%. As a Consumer Defensive name, IMKTA options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to IMKTA-specific events.
IMKTA 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. IMKTA positions also carry Consumer Defensive sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move IMKTA alongside the broader basket even when IMKTA-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current IMKTA chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on IMKTA?
- A butterfly on IMKTA is the butterfly strategy applied to IMKTA (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 IMKTA stock trading near $85.91, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed IMKTA chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are IMKTA 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 IMKTA butterfly priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 28.30%), 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 IMKTA butterfly?
- The breakeven for the IMKTA 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 IMKTA market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 8.11%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on IMKTA?
- Butterflies on IMKTA are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect IMKTA 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 IMKTA implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- IMKTA ATM IV is at 28.30% with IV rank near 4.72%, 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.