NHC Bear Put Spread Strategy
NHC (National HealthCare Corporation), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Care Facilities industry), listed on AMEX.
National HealthCare Corporation operates, manages, and provides services to skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, independent living facilities, homecare and hospice agencies, and a behavioral health hospital. Its skilled nursing facilities offer licensed therapy services, nutrition services, social services, activities, and housekeeping and laundry services, as well as medical services prescribed by physicians; and rehabilitative services, such as physical, speech, respiratory, and occupational therapy for patients recovering from strokes, heart attacks, orthopedic conditions, neurological illnesses, or other illnesses, injuries, or disabilities. The company's medical specialty units comprise memory care units and sub-cute nursing units that provide specialized care and programs for persons with Alzheimer's or related disorders; and assisted living centers offer personal care services and assistance with general activities of daily living, such as dressing, bathing, meal preparation, and medication management. It also offers behavioral health services to both adults and geriatric patients with psychiatric, emotional, and addictive disorders. In addition, it provides health care programs that offer skilled services, such as infusion, wound care and physical, occupational, and speech therapies; hospice care services; operates pharmacies; offers management, accounting, financial, and insurance services; and leases its properties to third party operators. As of February 18, 2022, the company operated 75 skilled nursing facilities with 9,473 beds, 24 assisted living facilities, five independent living facilities, one behavioral health hospital, 34 homecare agencies, and 28 hospice agencies.
NHC (National HealthCare Corporation) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Care Facilities, with a market capitalization of approximately $3.04B, a trailing P/E of 24.47, a beta of 0.65 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 93.54-194.76, average daily share volume of 116K, a public-listing history dating back to 1987, approximately 15K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how NHC stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.65 indicates NHC has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. NHC pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a bear put spread on NHC?
A bear put spread buys an at-the-money put and sells an out-of-the-money put at a lower strike for defined risk and defined reward bounded by the strike width.
Current NHC snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $192.01, ATM IV 24.00%, IV rank 14.85%, expected move 6.88%. The bear put spread on NHC 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 98-day expiry.
Why this bear put spread structure on NHC specifically: NHC IV at 24.00% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a NHC bear put spread, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 6.88% (roughly $13.21 on the underlying). The 98-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated NHC expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on NHC should anchor to the underlying notional of $192.01 per share and to the trader's directional view on NHC stock.
NHC bear put spread setup
The NHC bear put spread below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With NHC near $192.01, the first option leg uses a $190.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed NHC chain at a 98-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 NHC shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Put | $190.00 | $8.40 |
| Sell 1 | Put | $180.00 | $4.98 |
NHC bear put spread risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$342.50
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $657.50
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$342.50
- Breakeven(s)
- $186.58
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 1.920
Max profit equals strike width minus net debit times 100; max loss equals net debit times 100. Breakeven is long-put strike minus net debit.
NHC bear put spread payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the bear put spread on NHC. 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% | +$657.50 |
| $42.46 | -77.9% | +$657.50 |
| $84.92 | -55.8% | +$657.50 |
| $127.37 | -33.7% | +$657.50 |
| $169.82 | -11.6% | +$657.50 |
| $212.28 | +10.6% | -$342.50 |
| $254.73 | +32.7% | -$342.50 |
| $297.18 | +54.8% | -$342.50 |
| $339.64 | +76.9% | -$342.50 |
| $382.09 | +99.0% | -$342.50 |
When traders use bear put spread on NHC
Bear put spreads on NHC reduce the cost of a bearish NHC stock position by selling a lower-strike put; suited to moderate-decline theses where price reaches but does not vastly exceed the short strike.
NHC thesis for this bear put spread
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for NHC extends from approximately $178.80 on the downside to $205.22 on the upside. A NHC bear put spread caps both the risk and the reward of a bearish position; relative to an outright long put on NHC, the spread reduces the cost basis but limits the maximum profit to the strike width minus net debit. Current NHC IV rank near 14.85% 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 NHC at 24.00%. As a Healthcare name, NHC options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to NHC-specific events.
NHC bear put spread positions are structurally moderately bearish; 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. NHC positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move NHC alongside the broader basket even when NHC-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a bear put spread on NHC are particularly exposed to IV-crush risk through scheduled events (earnings, FDA decisions, central-bank meetings) where IV typically contracts post-event regardless of the directional outcome. Always rebuild the position from current NHC chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a bear put spread on NHC?
- A bear put spread on NHC is the bear put spread strategy applied to NHC (stock). The strategy is structurally moderately bearish: A bear put spread buys an at-the-money put and sells an out-of-the-money put at a lower strike for defined risk and defined reward bounded by the strike width. With NHC stock trading near $192.01, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed NHC chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are NHC bear put spread max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals strike width minus net debit times 100; max loss equals net debit times 100. Breakeven is long-put strike minus net debit. For the NHC bear put spread priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 24.00%), the computed maximum profit is $657.50 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$342.50 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a NHC bear put spread?
- The breakeven for the NHC bear put spread priced on this page is roughly $186.58 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 NHC market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 6.88%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a bear put spread on NHC?
- Bear put spreads on NHC reduce the cost of a bearish NHC stock position by selling a lower-strike put; suited to moderate-decline theses where price reaches but does not vastly exceed the short strike.
- How does current NHC implied volatility affect this bear put spread?
- NHC ATM IV is at 24.00% with IV rank near 14.85%, 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.