Option Strategies

Long Put Butterfly

Introduction

Long Put butterfly is the combination of a bull put spread and a bear put spread. In this strategy, all the puts have the same underlying stock, the same expiration date, and the strike price distance of ITM-ATM and OTM-ATM put pairs are the same. The long put butterfly strategy consists of buying an ITM put, buying an OTM put, and selling 2 ATM puts. This strategy profits from low volatility.

Implementation

Follow these steps to implement the long put butterfly strategy:

  1. In the Initializeinitialize method, set the start date, end date, cash, and Option universe.
  2. private Symbol _symbol;
    
    public override void Initialize()
    {
        SetStartDate(2017, 2, 1);
        SetEndDate(2017, 3, 5);
        SetCash(500000);
        UniverseSettings.Asynchronous = true;
        var option = AddOption("GOOG", Resolution.Minute);
        _symbol = option.Symbol;
        option.SetFilter(universe => universe.IncludeWeeklys().Strikes(-15, 15).Expiration(0, 31));
    }
    def initialize(self) -> None:
        self.set_start_date(2017, 2, 1)
        self.set_end_date(2017, 3, 5)
        self.set_cash(500000)
        self.universe_settings.asynchronous = True
        option = self.add_option("GOOG", Resolution.MINUTE)
        self._symbol = option.symbol
        option.set_filter(lambda universe: universe.include_weeklys().strikes(-15, 15).expiration(0, 31))
  3. In the OnDataon_data method, select strikes and expiration date of the contracts in the strategy legs.
  4. public override void OnData(Slice slice)
    {
        if (Portfolio.Invested) return;
    
        // Get the OptionChain
        var chain = slice.OptionChains.get(_symbol, null);
        if (chain == null || chain.Count() == 0) return;
    
        // Select an expiry date
        var expiry = chain.OrderByDescending(x => x.Expiry).First().Expiry;
        
        // Select the put contracts that expire on the selected date
        var puts = chain.Where(x => x.Expiry == expiry && x.Right == OptionRight.Put);
        if (puts.Count() == 0) return;
    
        // Sort the put contracts by their strike prices
        var putStrikes = puts.Select(x => x.Strike).OrderBy(x => x);
    
        // Get the ATM strike price
        var atmStrike = puts.OrderBy(x => Math.Abs(x.Strike - chain.Underlying.Price)).First().Strike;
    
        // Get the distance between lowest strike price and ATM strike, and highest strike price and ATM strike 
        // Get the lower value as the spread distance as equidistance is needed for both sides
        var spread = Math.Min(Math.Abs(putStrikes.First() - atmStrike), Math.Abs(putStrikes.Last() - atmStrike));
    
        // Select the strike prices of the strategy legs
        var itmStrike = atmStrike + spread;
        var otmStrike = atmStrike - spread;
    def on_data(self, slice: Slice) -> None:
        if self.portfolio.invested: return
    
        # Get the OptionChain
        chain = slice.option_chains.get(self.symbol, None)
        if not chain: return
    
        # Select an expiry date
        expiry = sorted(chain, key = lambda x: x.expiry, reverse=True)[0].expiry
        
        # Select the put contracts that expire on the selected date
        puts = [i for i in chain if i.expiry == expiry and i.right == OptionRight.PUT]
        if len(puts) == 0: return
    
        # Sort the put contracts by their strike prices
        put_strikes = sorted([x.strike for x in puts])
    
        # Get the ATM strike price
        atm_strike = sorted(puts, key=lambda x: abs(x.strike - chain.underlying.price))[0].strike
    
        # Get the distance between lowest strike price and ATM strike, and highest strike price and ATM strike. 
        # Get the lower value as the spread distance as equidistance is needed for both sides
        spread = min(abs(put_strikes[0] - atm_strike), abs(put_strikes[-1] - atm_strike))
    
        # Select the strike prices of the strategy legs
        itm_strike = atm_strike + spread
        otm_strike = atm_strike - spread
  5. In the OnDataon_data method, call the OptionStrategies.ButterflyPut method and then submit the order.
  6. var optionStrategy = OptionStrategies.ButterflyPut(_symbol, itmStrike, atmStrike, otmStrike, expiry);
    Buy(optionStrategy, 1);
    option_strategy = OptionStrategies.butterfly_put(self.symbol, itm_strike, atm_strike, otm_strike, expiry)
    self.buy(option_strategy, 1)

    Option strategies synchronously execute by default. To asynchronously execute Option strategies, set the asynchronous argument to Falsefalse. You can also provide a tag and order properties to the Buy method.

    Buy(optionStrategy, quantity, asynchronous, tag, orderProperties);
    
    self.Buy(option_strategy, quantity, asynchronous, tag, order_properties)
    

Strategy Payoff

The long put butterfly is a limited-reward-limited-risk strategy. The payoff is

$$ \begin{array}{rcll} P^{OTM}_T & = & (K^{OTM} - S_T)^{+}\\ P^{ITM}_T & = & (K^{ITM} - S_T)^{+}\\ P^{ATM}_T & = & (K^{ATM} - S_T)^{+}\\ P_T & = & (P^{OTM}_T + P^{ITM}_T - 2\times P^{ATM}_T + 2\times P^{ATM}_0 - P^{ITM}_0 - P^{OTM}_0)\times m - fee \end{array} $$ $$ \begin{array}{rcll} \textrm{where} & P^{OTM}_T & = & \textrm{OTM put value at time T}\\ & P^{ITM}_T & = & \textrm{ITM put value at time T}\\ & P^{ATM}_T & = & \textrm{ATM put value at time T}\\ & S_T & = & \textrm{Underlying asset price at time T}\\ & K^{OTM} & = & \textrm{OTM put strike price}\\ & K^{ITM} & = & \textrm{ITM put strike price}\\ & K^{ATM} & = & \textrm{ATM put strike price}\\ & P_T & = & \textrm{Payout total at time T}\\ & P^{ITM}_0 & = & \textrm{ITM put value at position opening (debit paid)}\\ & P^{OTM}_0 & = & \textrm{OTM put value at position opening (debit paid)}\\ & P^{ATM}_0 & = & \textrm{ATM put value at position opening (credit received)}\\ & m & = & \textrm{Contract multiplier}\\ & T & = & \textrm{Time of expiration} \end{array} $$

The following chart shows the payoff at expiration:

Strategy payoff decomposition and analysis of long put butterfly

The maximum profit is $K^{ATM} - K^{OTM} + 2\times P^{ATM}_0 - P^{ITM}_0 - P^{OTM}_0$. It occurs when the underlying price is the same at expiration as it was when you open the trade. In this case, the payout of the combined bull put and bear put spreads are at their maximum.

The maximum loss is the net debit paid, $2\times P^{ATM}_0 - P^{ITM}_0 - P^{OTM}_0$. It occurs when the underlying price is below the ITM strike price or above the OTM strike price at expiration.

If the Option is American Option, there is risk of early assignment on the sold contracts.

Example

The following table shows the price details of the assets in the long put butterfly algorithm:

AssetPrice ($)Strike ($)
ITM put37.80832.50
ATM put14.70800.00
OTM put5.70767.50
Underlying Equity at expiration829.08-

Therefore, the payoff is

$$ \begin{array}{rcll} P^{OTM}_T & = & (K^{OTM} - S_T)^{+}\\ & = & (829.08-832.50)^{+}\\ & = & 0\\ P^{ITM}_T & = & (K^{ITM} - S_T)^{+}\\ & = & (829.08-767.50)^{+}\\ & = & 61.58\\ P^{ATM}_T & = & (K^{ATM} - S_T)^{+}\\ & = & (829.08-800.00)^{+}\\ & = & 29.08\\ P_T & = & (P^{OTM}_T + P^{ITM}_T - 2\times P^{ATM}_T + 2\times P^{ATM}_0 - P^{ITM}_0 - P^{OTM}_0)\times m - fee\\ & = & (61.58+0-29.08\times2-5.70-37.80+14.70\times2)\times100-1.00\times4\\ & = & -1072 \end{array} $$

So, the strategy losses $1,072.

The following algorithm implements a long put butterfly Option strategy:


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