MDLN Butterfly Strategy
MDLN (Medline Inc.), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Instruments & Supplies industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Medline Inc. manufactures med-surg products serving the hospital, surgery centers, physician offices, post-acute facilities, and nursing home sites of care in the United States and Internationally. It operates through two segments: Medline Brand and Supply Chain Solutions. The Medline Brand segment procures and manufactures products from three product categories include surgical solutions, front line care, and laboratory and diagnostics. Its front line care offers med-surg products for patient-facing needs, including wound care products, exam gloves, skin care and incontinence products, environment cleaning supplies, textiles, hand sanitizer, durable medical equipment, patient plastics, and decolonization and infection control products. Its surgical solutions provide operating room and perioperative environment product solutions, including surgical procedure trays, drapes and gowns, personal protective equipment, sterile wraps, surgical instruments, surgeon's gloves, procedure kits, and orthopedic implants. Its laboratory and diagnostics offer laboratory and diagnostic product solutions, including point of care testing, analyzers and instrumentation, lab and diagnostic consumables, diagnostic instruments, vital signs monitors, and anatomic pathology and phlebotomy products.
MDLN (Medline Inc.) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Instruments & Supplies, with a market capitalization of approximately $31.42B, a trailing P/E of 32.89, a beta of 0.18 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 34.89-50.876, average daily share volume of 8.0M, a public-listing history dating back to 2025, approximately 43K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how MDLN stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.18 indicates MDLN has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure.
What is a butterfly on MDLN?
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 MDLN snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $36.53, ATM IV 42.70%, expected move 12.24%. The butterfly on MDLN 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 MDLN specifically: IV rank is unavailable in the current snapshot, so regime-based timing for MDLN is inferred from ATM IV at 42.70% alone, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 12.24% (roughly $4.47 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 MDLN expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on MDLN should anchor to the underlying notional of $36.53 per share and to the trader's directional view on MDLN stock.
MDLN butterfly setup
The MDLN 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 MDLN near $36.53, the first option leg uses a $34.70 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed MDLN 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 MDLN shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $34.70 | N/A |
| Sell 2 | Call | $36.53 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Call | $38.36 | N/A |
MDLN 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.
MDLN butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on MDLN. 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 MDLN
Butterflies on MDLN are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect MDLN 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.
MDLN thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for MDLN extends from approximately $32.06 on the downside to $41.00 on the upside. A MDLN long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if MDLN settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. As a Healthcare name, MDLN options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to MDLN-specific events.
MDLN 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. MDLN positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move MDLN alongside the broader basket even when MDLN-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current MDLN chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on MDLN?
- A butterfly on MDLN is the butterfly strategy applied to MDLN (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 MDLN stock trading near $36.53, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed MDLN chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are MDLN 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 MDLN butterfly priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 42.70%), 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 MDLN butterfly?
- The breakeven for the MDLN 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 MDLN market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 12.24%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on MDLN?
- Butterflies on MDLN are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect MDLN 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 MDLN implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- Current MDLN ATM IV is 42.70%; IV rank context is unavailable in the current snapshot.