PESI Straddle Strategy
PESI (Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc.), in the Industrials sector, (Waste Management industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as an environmental and technology know-how company in the United States. It operates in three segments: Treatment, Services, and Medical. The Treatment segment offers nuclear, low-level radioactive, mixed waste, hazardous and non-hazardous waste treatment, and processing and disposal services through treatment and storage facilities. This segment is also involved in the research and development activities to identify, develop, and implement waste processing techniques for problematic waste streams. The Services segment provides technical services, including professional radiological measurement and site survey of government and commercial installations; integrated occupational safety and health services; and consulting, engineering, project and waste management, environmental, decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) field, technical, on-site waste management services, and management personnel and services. This segment also offers nuclear services, including technology-based services comprising engineering, D&D, specialty, construction, logistics, transportation, processing, and disposal; offers remediation of nuclear licensed and federal facilities, as well as cleanup of nuclear legacy sites; and owns an equipment calibration and maintenance laboratory that services, maintains, calibrates, and sources health physics, industrial hygiene, and customized nuclear, environmental, and occupational safety and health instrumentation.
PESI (Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc.) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Waste Management, with a market capitalization of approximately $180.1M, a beta of 0.61 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 8.02-16.5, average daily share volume of 168K, a public-listing history dating back to 1992, approximately 293 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how PESI stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.61 indicates PESI has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure.
What is a straddle on PESI?
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 PESI snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $9.75, ATM IV 69.10%, IV rank 14.05%, expected move 19.81%. The straddle on PESI 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 PESI specifically: PESI IV at 69.10% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a PESI straddle, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 19.81% (roughly $1.93 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 PESI expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on PESI should anchor to the underlying notional of $9.75 per share and to the trader's directional view on PESI stock.
PESI straddle setup
The PESI 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 PESI near $9.75, the first option leg uses a $9.75 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed PESI 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 PESI shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $9.75 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Put | $9.75 | N/A |
PESI straddle 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
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.
PESI straddle payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the straddle on PESI. 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 straddle on PESI
Straddles on PESI are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy PESI straddles ahead of earnings, FDA decisions, or other catalysts where the realized move is expected to exceed the implied move priced into the chain.
PESI thesis for this straddle
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for PESI extends from approximately $7.82 on the downside to $11.68 on the upside. A PESI 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 PESI IV rank near 14.05% 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 PESI at 69.10%. As a Industrials name, PESI options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to PESI-specific events.
PESI 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. PESI positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move PESI alongside the broader basket even when PESI-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current PESI chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a straddle on PESI?
- A straddle on PESI is the straddle strategy applied to PESI (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 PESI stock trading near $9.75, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed PESI chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are PESI 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 PESI straddle priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 69.10%), 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 PESI straddle?
- The breakeven for the PESI straddle 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 PESI market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 19.81%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a straddle on PESI?
- Straddles on PESI are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy PESI 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 PESI implied volatility affect this straddle?
- PESI ATM IV is at 69.10% with IV rank near 14.05%, 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.