NBR Straddle Strategy
NBR (Nabors Industries Ltd.), in the Energy sector, (Oil & Gas Drilling industry), listed on NYSE.
Nabors Industries Ltd. provides drilling and drilling-related services for land-based and offshore oil and natural gas wells. The company operates through five segments: U.S. Drilling, Canada Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. It provides tubular running, wellbore placement, directional drilling, measurement-while-drilling (MWD), equipment manufacturing, and rig instrumentation services; and logging-while-drilling systems and services, as well as drilling optimization software. The company also offers REVit, an automated real time stick-slip mitigation system; ROCKit, a directional steering control system; SmartNAV, a collaborative guidance and advisory platform; SmartSLIDE, an advanced directional steering control system; and RigCLOUD, which provides the tools and infrastructure to integrate applications to deliver real-time insight into operations across the rig fleet. In addition, it manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and other drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools; and provides aftermarket sales and services for the installed base of its equipment.
NBR (Nabors Industries Ltd.) trades in the Energy sector, specifically Oil & Gas Drilling, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.50B, a trailing P/E of 6.93, a beta of 1.02 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 23.27-105.8, average daily share volume of 377K, a public-listing history dating back to 1973, approximately 12K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how NBR stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.02 places NBR roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. The trailing P/E of 6.93 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price.
What is a straddle on NBR?
A long straddle buys an ATM call and an ATM put at the same strike, profiting from a large move in either direction; max loss equals the combined debit when the underlying pins to the strike at expiration.
Current NBR snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $105.64, ATM IV 57.80%, IV rank 10.79%, expected move 16.57%. The straddle on NBR 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 straddle structure on NBR specifically: NBR IV at 57.80% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a NBR straddle, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 16.57% (roughly $17.51 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 NBR expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on NBR should anchor to the underlying notional of $105.64 per share and to the trader's directional view on NBR stock.
NBR straddle setup
The NBR straddle below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With NBR near $105.64, the first option leg uses a $105.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed NBR 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 NBR shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $105.00 | $7.30 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $105.00 | $7.00 |
NBR straddle risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$1,430.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$1,418.58
- Breakeven(s)
- $90.70, $119.30
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- Unbounded
Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the strike minus the combined call plus put debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached when the underlying pins to the strike). Two breakevens at strike plus debit and strike minus debit.
NBR straddle payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the straddle on NBR. 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% | +$9,069.00 |
| $23.37 | -77.9% | +$6,733.35 |
| $46.72 | -55.8% | +$4,397.70 |
| $70.08 | -33.7% | +$2,062.06 |
| $93.44 | -11.6% | -$273.59 |
| $116.79 | +10.6% | -$250.76 |
| $140.15 | +32.7% | +$2,084.89 |
| $163.51 | +54.8% | +$4,420.54 |
| $186.86 | +76.9% | +$6,756.19 |
| $210.22 | +99.0% | +$9,091.83 |
When traders use straddle on NBR
Straddles on NBR are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy NBR straddles ahead of earnings, FDA decisions, or other catalysts where the realized move is expected to exceed the implied move priced into the chain.
NBR thesis for this straddle
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for NBR extends from approximately $88.13 on the downside to $123.15 on the upside. A NBR long straddle is a pure-volatility play: it profits when the underlying moves far enough from the strike in either direction to overcome the combined call plus put debit, regardless of direction. Current NBR IV rank near 10.79% 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 NBR at 57.80%. As a Energy name, NBR options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to NBR-specific events.
NBR straddle positions are structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium); 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. NBR positions also carry Energy sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move NBR alongside the broader basket even when NBR-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current NBR chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a straddle on NBR?
- A straddle on NBR is the straddle strategy applied to NBR (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium): A long straddle buys an ATM call and an ATM put at the same strike, profiting from a large move in either direction; max loss equals the combined debit when the underlying pins to the strike at expiration. With NBR stock trading near $105.64, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed NBR chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are NBR straddle max profit and max loss calculated?
- Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the strike minus the combined call plus put debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached when the underlying pins to the strike). Two breakevens at strike plus debit and strike minus debit. For the NBR straddle priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 57.80%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$1,418.58 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a NBR straddle?
- The breakeven for the NBR straddle priced on this page is roughly $90.70 and $119.30 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 NBR market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 16.57%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a straddle on NBR?
- Straddles on NBR are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy NBR straddles ahead of earnings, FDA decisions, or other catalysts where the realized move is expected to exceed the implied move priced into the chain.
- How does current NBR implied volatility affect this straddle?
- NBR ATM IV is at 57.80% with IV rank near 10.79%, 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.