OIS Butterfly Strategy
OIS (Oil States International, Inc.), in the Energy sector, (Oil & Gas Equipment & Services industry), listed on NYSE.
Oil States International, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides oilfield products and services for the drilling, completion, subsea, production, and infrastructure sectors of the oil and gas industry worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Well Site Services, Downhole Technologies, and Offshore/Manufactured Products. The Well Site Services segment offers a range of equipment and services that are used to drill for, establish, and maintain the flow of oil and natural gas from a well throughout its lifecycle. It also provides wellhead isolation, frac valve, wireline and coiled tubing support, flowback and well testing, pipe recovery systems, gravel pack and sand control, blowout preventer, and drilling services. The Downhole Technologies segment provides oil and gas perforation systems, and downhole tools in support of completion, intervention, wireline, and well abandonment operations. This segment also designs, manufactures, and markets its consumable engineered products to oilfield service, and exploration and production companies.
OIS (Oil States International, Inc.) trades in the Energy sector, specifically Oil & Gas Equipment & Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $542.3M, a beta of 1.20 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 4.22-14.5, average daily share volume of 1.1M, a public-listing history dating back to 2001, approximately 2K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how OIS stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.20 places OIS roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline.
What is a butterfly on OIS?
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 OIS snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $8.98, ATM IV 18.60%, IV rank 1.49%, expected move 5.33%. The butterfly on OIS 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 OIS specifically: OIS IV at 18.60% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a OIS butterfly, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 5.33% (roughly $0.48 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 OIS expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on OIS should anchor to the underlying notional of $8.98 per share and to the trader's directional view on OIS stock.
OIS butterfly setup
The OIS 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 OIS near $8.98, the first option leg uses a $8.53 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed OIS 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 OIS shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $8.53 | N/A |
| Sell 2 | Call | $8.98 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Call | $9.43 | N/A |
OIS 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.
OIS butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on OIS. 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 OIS
Butterflies on OIS are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect OIS 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.
OIS thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for OIS extends from approximately $8.50 on the downside to $9.46 on the upside. A OIS long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if OIS settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. Current OIS IV rank near 1.49% 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 OIS at 18.60%. As a Energy name, OIS options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to OIS-specific events.
OIS 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. OIS positions also carry Energy sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move OIS alongside the broader basket even when OIS-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current OIS chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on OIS?
- A butterfly on OIS is the butterfly strategy applied to OIS (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 OIS stock trading near $8.98, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed OIS chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are OIS 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 OIS butterfly priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 18.60%), 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 OIS butterfly?
- The breakeven for the OIS 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 OIS market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 5.33%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on OIS?
- Butterflies on OIS are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect OIS 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 OIS implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- OIS ATM IV is at 18.60% with IV rank near 1.49%, 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.