WMK Butterfly Strategy
WMK (Weis Markets, Inc.), in the Consumer Defensive sector, (Grocery Stores industry), listed on NYSE.
Weis Markets, Inc. engages in the retail sale of food through a chain of supermarkets in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. The company's retail food stores sell groceries, dairy products, frozen foods, meats, seafood, fresh produce, floral, pharmacy services, deli products, prepared foods, bakery products, beer and wine, and fuel; and general merchandise items, such as health and beauty care, and household products. It operates stores primarily under the Weis Markets name, as well as Weis, Weis 2 Go, Weis Great Meals Start Here, Weis Gas-n-Go, and Weis Nutri-Facts. As of March 7, 2022, the company owned and operated 197 stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, and Virginia. Weis Markets, Inc. was founded in 1912 and is based in Sunbury, Pennsylvania.
WMK (Weis Markets, Inc.) trades in the Consumer Defensive sector, specifically Grocery Stores, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.73B, a trailing P/E of 17.12, a beta of 0.45 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 59.99-79.05, average daily share volume of 151K, a public-listing history dating back to 1980, approximately 22K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how WMK stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.45 indicates WMK has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. WMK pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a butterfly on WMK?
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 WMK snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $70.72, ATM IV 44.00%, IV rank 7.72%, expected move 12.61%. The butterfly on WMK 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 WMK specifically: WMK IV at 44.00% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a WMK butterfly, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 12.61% (roughly $8.92 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 WMK expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on WMK should anchor to the underlying notional of $70.72 per share and to the trader's directional view on WMK stock.
WMK butterfly setup
The WMK 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 WMK near $70.72, the first option leg uses a $67.18 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed WMK 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 WMK shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $67.18 | N/A |
| Sell 2 | Call | $70.72 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Call | $74.26 | N/A |
WMK 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.
WMK butterfly payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the butterfly on WMK. 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 WMK
Butterflies on WMK are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect WMK 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.
WMK thesis for this butterfly
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for WMK extends from approximately $61.80 on the downside to $79.64 on the upside. A WMK long call butterfly is a pinning play: it pays maximum at the middle strike if WMK settles there at expiration, with the wing legs capping both the cost and the maximum loss to the net debit. Current WMK IV rank near 7.72% 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 WMK at 44.00%. As a Consumer Defensive name, WMK options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to WMK-specific events.
WMK 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. WMK positions also carry Consumer Defensive sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move WMK alongside the broader basket even when WMK-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current WMK chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a butterfly on WMK?
- A butterfly on WMK is the butterfly strategy applied to WMK (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 WMK stock trading near $70.72, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed WMK chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are WMK 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 WMK butterfly priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 44.00%), 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 WMK butterfly?
- The breakeven for the WMK 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 WMK market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 12.61%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a butterfly on WMK?
- Butterflies on WMK are pinning bets - traders use them when they expect WMK 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 WMK implied volatility affect this butterfly?
- WMK ATM IV is at 44.00% with IV rank near 7.72%, 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.