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Butterfly spread

A structure built from options at three strikes that pays most when the price sits at the middle one.

How to read the number

A bet that the price stays at the centre of the structure: what is bought here is a narrow range, not a direction.

When the metric lies

The maximum is reached at a point and only at expiry. Before that the position is worth noticeably less than the calculated maximum even when the price stands exactly where it should.

Also known as: butterfly option strategy

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