SPOK Butterfly Strategy
SPOK (Spok Holdings, Inc.), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Healthcare Information Services industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Spok Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, Spok, Inc., provides healthcare communication solutions in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East. It delivers clinical information to care teams when and where it matters to enhance patient outcomes. The company offers subscriptions to one-way or two-way messaging services; and ancillary services, such as voicemail, and equipment loss or maintenance protection services, as well as sells devices to resellers who lease or resell them to their subscribers. Its Spok Care Connect platform enhance workflows for clinicians and support administrative compliance. In addition, the company provides professional, software license updates, and product support services, as well as sells third-party equipment. It serves businesses, professionals, management personnel, medical personnel, field sales personnel and service forces, members of the construction industry and construction trades, real estate brokers and developers, sales and services organizations, specialty trade organizations, manufacturing organizations, and government agencies.
SPOK (Spok Holdings, Inc.) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Healthcare Information Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $228.5M, a trailing P/E of 17.93, a beta of 0.43 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 9.95-19.31, average daily share volume of 187K, a public-listing history dating back to 2004, approximately 418 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how SPOK stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.43 indicates SPOK has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. SPOK pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a butterfly on SPOK?
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 SPOK snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $10.89, ATM IV 73.50%, IV rank 25.05%, expected move 21.07%. The butterfly on SPOK 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 SPOK specifically: SPOK IV at 73.50% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a SPOK butterfly, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 21.07% (roughly $2.29 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 SPOK expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on SPOK should anchor to the underlying notional of $10.89 per share and to the trader's directional view on SPOK stock.
SPOK butterfly setup
The SPOK 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 SPOK near $10.89, the first option leg uses a $10.35 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed SPOK 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 SPOK shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $10.35 | N/A |
| Sell 2 | Call | $10.89 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Call | $11.43 | N/A |
SPOK 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.
SPOK butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on SPOK. 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 SPOK
Butterflies on SPOK are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect SPOK 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.
SPOK thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for SPOK extends from approximately $8.60 on the downside to $13.18 on the upside. A SPOK long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if SPOK settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. Current SPOK IV rank near 25.05% 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 SPOK at 73.50%. As a Healthcare name, SPOK options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to SPOK-specific events.
SPOK 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. SPOK positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move SPOK alongside the broader basket even when SPOK-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current SPOK chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on SPOK?
- A butterfly on SPOK is the butterfly strategy applied to SPOK (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 SPOK stock trading near $10.89, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed SPOK chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are SPOK 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 SPOK butterfly priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 73.50%), 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 SPOK butterfly?
- The breakeven for the SPOK 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 SPOK market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 21.07%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on SPOK?
- Butterflies on SPOK are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect SPOK 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 SPOK implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- SPOK ATM IV is at 73.50% with IV rank near 25.05%, 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.