NIC Long Put Strategy
NIC (Nicolet Bankshares, Inc.), in the Financial Services sector, (Banks - Regional industry), listed on NYSE.
Nicolet Bankshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Nicolet National Bank that provides banking products and services for businesses and individuals. The company accepts checking, savings, and money market accounts; various certificates of deposit; and individual retirement accounts. It also offers commercial loans, including commercial, industrial, and business loans and lines of credit; commercial real estate loans; agricultural (AG) production and AG real estate loans; commercial real estate investment real estate loans; construction and land development loans; residential real estate loans, such as residential first lien and junior lien mortgages, home equity loans, lines of credit, and residential construction loans; and consumer loans. In addition, the company provides cash management, international banking, personal brokerage, safe deposit boxes, and trust and fiduciary services, as well as wealth management and retirement plan services. Further, it offers mortgage refinancing; online services, such as commercial, retail, and trust online banking; automated bill payment, mobile banking deposits and account access, and remote deposit capture services; and other services consisting of wire transfers, debit cards, credit cards, pre-paid gift cards, direct deposits, and official bank checks, as well as facilitates crop insurance products. As of December 31, 2021, it operated 52 branches throughout Wisconsin and Michigan.
NIC (Nicolet Bankshares, Inc.) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Banks - Regional, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.20B, a trailing P/E of 15.57, a beta of 0.70 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 114.12-163.11, average daily share volume of 203K, a public-listing history dating back to 2013, approximately 952 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how NIC stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.70 indicates NIC has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. NIC pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a long put on NIC?
A long put buys downside exposure with a fixed maximum loss equal to the premium paid; profit accrues if the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration.
Current NIC snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $137.63, ATM IV 26.20%, IV rank 2.58%, expected move 7.51%. The long put on NIC 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 long put structure on NIC specifically: NIC IV at 26.20% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a NIC long put, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 7.51% (roughly $10.34 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 NIC expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on NIC should anchor to the underlying notional of $137.63 per share and to the trader's directional view on NIC stock.
NIC long put setup
The NIC long put below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With NIC near $137.63, the first option leg uses a $140.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed NIC 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 NIC shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Put | $140.00 | $5.40 |
NIC long put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$540.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $13,459.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$540.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $134.60
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 24.924
Max profit equals the strike minus premium times 100 (reached at zero); max loss equals the premium times 100. Breakeven is strike minus premium.
NIC long put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the long put on NIC. 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% | +$13,459.00 |
| $30.44 | -77.9% | +$10,416.04 |
| $60.87 | -55.8% | +$7,373.07 |
| $91.30 | -33.7% | +$4,330.11 |
| $121.73 | -11.6% | +$1,287.14 |
| $152.16 | +10.6% | -$540.00 |
| $182.59 | +32.7% | -$540.00 |
| $213.02 | +54.8% | -$540.00 |
| $243.45 | +76.9% | -$540.00 |
| $273.88 | +99.0% | -$540.00 |
When traders use long put on NIC
Long puts on NIC hedge an existing long NIC stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying NIC exposure being hedged.
NIC thesis for this long put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for NIC extends from approximately $127.29 on the downside to $147.97 on the upside. A NIC long put expresses a directional view that the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration, frequently sized to hedge an existing long NIC position with one put per 100 shares held. Current NIC IV rank near 2.58% 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 NIC at 26.20%. As a Financial Services name, NIC options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to NIC-specific events.
NIC long put positions are structurally 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. NIC positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move NIC alongside the broader basket even when NIC-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a long put on NIC 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 NIC chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a long put on NIC?
- A long put on NIC is the long put strategy applied to NIC (stock). The strategy is structurally bearish: A long put buys downside exposure with a fixed maximum loss equal to the premium paid; profit accrues if the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration. With NIC stock trading near $137.63, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed NIC chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are NIC long put max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals the strike minus premium times 100 (reached at zero); max loss equals the premium times 100. Breakeven is strike minus premium. For the NIC long put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 26.20%), the computed maximum profit is $13,459.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$540.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a NIC long put?
- The breakeven for the NIC long put priced on this page is roughly $134.60 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 NIC market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 7.51%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a long put on NIC?
- Long puts on NIC hedge an existing long NIC stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying NIC exposure being hedged.
- How does current NIC implied volatility affect this long put?
- NIC ATM IV is at 26.20% with IV rank near 2.58%, 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.