TMO Butterfly Strategy
TMO (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Diagnostics & Research industry), listed on NYSE.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. provides life sciences solutions, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and biopharma services in the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company's Life Sciences Solutions segment offers reagents, instruments, and consumables for biological and medical research, discovery, and production of drugs and vaccines, as well as diagnosis of infections and diseases; and solutions include biosciences, genetic sciences, and bio production to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural, clinical, healthcare, academic, and government markets. Its Analytical Instruments segment provides instruments, consumables, software, and services for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academic, government, environmental, and other research and industrial markets, as well as clinical laboratories. The company's Specialty Diagnostics segment offers liquid, ready-to-use, and lyophilized immunodiagnostic reagent kits, as well as calibrators, controls, protein detection assays, and instruments; immunodiagnostics develops, manufactures and markets complete bloodtest systems to support the clinical diagnosis and monitoring of allergy, asthma and autoimmune diseases; dehydrated and prepared culture media, collection and transport systems, instrumentation, and consumables; human leukocyte antigen typing and testing for organ transplant market; and healthcare products. Its Laboratory Products and Biopharma Services segment provides laboratory products, research and safety market channel, and pharma services and clinical research. It offers products and services through a direct sales force, customer-service professionals, electronic commerce, and third-party distributors under Thermo Scientific; Applied Biosystems; Invitrogen; Fisher Scientific; Unity Lab Services; and Patheon and PPD.
TMO (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Diagnostics & Research, with a market capitalization of approximately $165.75B, a trailing P/E of 24.19, a beta of 0.88 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 385.46-643.99, average daily share volume of 2.1M, a public-listing history dating back to 1980, approximately 125K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how TMO stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.88 places TMO roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. TMO pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a butterfly on TMO?
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 TMO snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $437.94, ATM IV 30.92%, IV rank 45.02%, expected move 8.87%. The butterfly on TMO 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 28-day expiry.
Why this butterfly structure on TMO specifically: TMO IV at 30.92% 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 8.87% (roughly $38.83 on the underlying). The 28-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated TMO expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on TMO should anchor to the underlying notional of $437.94 per share and to the trader's directional view on TMO stock.
TMO butterfly setup
The TMO 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 TMO near $437.94, the first option leg uses a $415.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed TMO chain at a 28-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 TMO shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $415.00 | $31.80 |
| Sell 2 | Call | $440.00 | $14.85 |
| Buy 1 | Call | $460.00 | $6.85 |
TMO butterfly risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$895.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $1,590.43
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$895.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $423.95, $456.05
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 1.777
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.
TMO butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on TMO. 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% | -$895.00 |
| $96.84 | -77.9% | -$895.00 |
| $193.67 | -55.8% | -$895.00 |
| $290.50 | -33.7% | -$895.00 |
| $387.33 | -11.6% | -$895.00 |
| $484.16 | +10.6% | -$395.00 |
| $580.99 | +32.7% | -$395.00 |
| $677.82 | +54.8% | -$395.00 |
| $774.65 | +76.9% | -$395.00 |
| $871.48 | +99.0% | -$395.00 |
When traders use butterfly on TMO
Butterflies on TMO are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect TMO 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.
TMO thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for TMO extends from approximately $399.11 on the downside to $476.77 on the upside. A TMO long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if TMO settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. Current TMO IV rank near 45.02% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the butterfly thesis on TMO should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Healthcare name, TMO options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to TMO-specific events.
TMO 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. TMO positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move TMO alongside the broader basket even when TMO-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current TMO chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on TMO?
- A butterfly on TMO is the butterfly strategy applied to TMO (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 TMO stock trading near $437.94, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed TMO chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are TMO 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 TMO butterfly priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 30.92%), the computed maximum profit is $1,590.43 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$895.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a TMO butterfly?
- The breakeven for the TMO butterfly priced on this page is roughly $423.95 and $456.05 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 TMO market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 8.87%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on TMO?
- Butterflies on TMO are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect TMO 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 TMO implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- TMO ATM IV is at 30.92% with IV rank near 45.02%, 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.