PBF Bear Put Spread Strategy
PBF (PBF Energy Inc.), in the Energy sector, (Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing industry), listed on NYSE.
PBF Energy Inc., operating through its subsidiaries, primarily focuses on the refinement and distribution of various petroleum products. Its business is structured into two core segments: Refining and Logistics. The company's extensive product portfolio encompasses gasoline, ultra-low-sulfur diesel, heating oil, standard diesel fuel, jet fuel, lubricants, petrochemicals, and asphalt. Additionally, it provides unbranded transportation fuels, essential petrochemical feedstocks, blending components, and other petroleum derivatives. PBF Energy distributes these products across the United States, specifically targeting the Northeast, Midwest, Gulf Coast, and West Coast regions, with further market penetration into other domestic areas, Canada, and Mexico. Beyond its refining activities, the company offers a comprehensive suite of logistics services, including rail, truck, and marine terminaling, alongside pipeline transportation and storage solutions.
PBF (PBF Energy Inc.) trades in the Energy sector, specifically Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing, with a market capitalization of approximately $5.10B, a trailing P/E of 11.44, a beta of 0.12 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 21.24-52.18, average daily share volume of 3.0M, a public-listing history dating back to 2012, approximately 4K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how PBF stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.12 indicates PBF has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. The trailing P/E of 11.44 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price. PBF 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 PBF?
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 PBF snapshot
As of June 30, 2026, spot at $45.15, ATM IV 62.10%, IV rank 19.08%, expected move 17.80%. The bear put spread on PBF 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 17-day expiry.
Why this bear put spread structure on PBF specifically: PBF IV at 62.10% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a PBF bear put spread, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 17.80% (roughly $8.04 on the underlying). The 17-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated PBF expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on PBF should anchor to the underlying notional of $45.15 per share and to the trader's directional view on PBF stock.
PBF bear put spread setup
The PBF 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 PBF near $45.15, the first option leg uses a $45.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed PBF chain at a 17-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 PBF shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Put | $45.00 | $2.35 |
| Sell 1 | Put | $43.00 | $1.45 |
PBF bear put spread risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$90.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $110.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$90.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $44.10
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 1.222
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.
PBF bear put spread payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the bear put spread on PBF. 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% | +$110.00 |
| $9.99 | -77.9% | +$110.00 |
| $19.97 | -55.8% | +$110.00 |
| $29.96 | -33.7% | +$110.00 |
| $39.94 | -11.5% | +$110.00 |
| $49.92 | +10.6% | -$90.00 |
| $59.90 | +32.7% | -$90.00 |
| $69.88 | +54.8% | -$90.00 |
| $79.86 | +76.9% | -$90.00 |
| $89.85 | +99.0% | -$90.00 |
When traders use bear put spread on PBF
Bear put spreads on PBF reduce the cost of a bearish PBF stock position by selling a lower-strike put; suited to moderate-decline theses where price reaches but does not vastly exceed the short strike.
PBF thesis for this bear put spread
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for PBF extends from approximately $37.11 on the downside to $53.19 on the upside. A PBF bear put spread caps both the risk and the reward of a bearish position; relative to an outright long put on PBF, the spread reduces the cost basis but limits the maximum profit to the strike width minus net debit. Current PBF IV rank near 19.08% 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 PBF at 62.10%. As a Energy name, PBF options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to PBF-specific events.
PBF 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. PBF positions also carry Energy sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move PBF alongside the broader basket even when PBF-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a bear put spread on PBF 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 PBF chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a bear put spread on PBF?
- A bear put spread on PBF is the bear put spread strategy applied to PBF (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 PBF stock trading near $45.15, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed PBF chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are PBF 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 PBF bear put spread priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 62.10%), the computed maximum profit is $110.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$90.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a PBF bear put spread?
- The breakeven for the PBF bear put spread priced on this page is roughly $44.10 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 PBF market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 17.80%; 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 PBF?
- Bear put spreads on PBF reduce the cost of a bearish PBF 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 PBF implied volatility affect this bear put spread?
- PBF ATM IV is at 62.10% with IV rank near 19.08%, 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.