TENB Butterfly Strategy
TENB (Tenable Holdings, Inc.), in the Technology sector, (Software - Infrastructure industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Tenable Holdings, Inc. provides cyber exposure solutions for in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. Its platforms include Tenable.io, a cloud-delivered software as a service that provides organizations with a risk-based view of traditional and modern attack surfaces; Tenable.cs, a cloud-native application platform that enables organizations to programmatically detect and fix cloud infrastructure misconfigurations; Tenable.io WAS, which provides scanning for modern web applications; and Tenable.ep, an unified platform that helps organizations identify, assess, and accurately prioritize cyber risks across the entire attack surface. The company also offers Tenable.ad, a solution to secure Active Directory environments; Tenable.ot, an on-premises solution that provides threat detection and mitigation, asset tracking, vulnerability management, and configuration control capabilities to protect OT environments, including industrial networks; Tenable.sc, an on-premises solution that provides a risk-based view of an organization's IT, security and compliance posture. In addition, it provides Nessus Professional, a vulnerability assessment solution for identifying security vulnerabilities, configuration issues, and malware; and Nessus Essentials, which includes vulnerability and configuration assessment for a limited number of assets. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland.
TENB (Tenable Holdings, Inc.) trades in the Technology sector, specifically Software - Infrastructure, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.27B, a beta of 0.88 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 15.73-35.69, average daily share volume of 3.2M, a public-listing history dating back to 2018, approximately 2K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how TENB stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.88 places TENB roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline.
What is a butterfly on TENB?
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 TENB snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $21.45, ATM IV 58.10%, IV rank 60.59%, expected move 16.66%. The butterfly on TENB 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 TENB specifically: TENB IV at 58.10% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so strategy selection should anchor more to the directional thesis than to the IV regime, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 16.66% (roughly $3.57 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 TENB expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on TENB should anchor to the underlying notional of $21.45 per share and to the trader's directional view on TENB stock.
TENB butterfly setup
The TENB 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 TENB near $21.45, the first option leg uses a $20.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed TENB 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 TENB shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $20.00 | $2.38 |
| Sell 2 | Call | $21.00 | $1.90 |
| Buy 1 | Call | $23.00 | $0.93 |
TENB butterfly risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$50.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $141.62
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$50.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $22.50
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 2.832
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.
TENB butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on TENB. 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% | +$50.00 |
| $4.75 | -77.8% | +$50.00 |
| $9.49 | -55.7% | +$50.00 |
| $14.23 | -33.6% | +$50.00 |
| $18.98 | -11.5% | +$50.00 |
| $23.72 | +10.6% | -$50.00 |
| $28.46 | +32.7% | -$50.00 |
| $33.20 | +54.8% | -$50.00 |
| $37.94 | +76.9% | -$50.00 |
| $42.68 | +99.0% | -$50.00 |
When traders use butterfly on TENB
Butterflies on TENB are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect TENB 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.
TENB thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for TENB extends from approximately $17.88 on the downside to $25.02 on the upside. A TENB long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if TENB settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. Current TENB IV rank near 60.59% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the butterfly thesis on TENB should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Technology name, TENB options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to TENB-specific events.
TENB 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. TENB positions also carry Technology sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move TENB alongside the broader basket even when TENB-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current TENB chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on TENB?
- A butterfly on TENB is the butterfly strategy applied to TENB (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 TENB stock trading near $21.45, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed TENB chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are TENB 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 TENB butterfly priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 58.10%), the computed maximum profit is $141.62 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$50.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a TENB butterfly?
- The breakeven for the TENB butterfly priced on this page is roughly $22.50 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 TENB market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 16.66%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on TENB?
- Butterflies on TENB are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect TENB 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 TENB implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- TENB ATM IV is at 58.10% with IV rank near 60.59%, which is mid-range against its 1-year history. Strategy selection depends more on directional thesis and expected move than on a strong IV signal.