National Fuel Gas Co. (NFG) announced new options available for trading today, with expiration set for September 19th. A put contract at the $85.00 strike price is currently bid at 55 cents, while a call contract at the $90.00 strike is bid at 40 cents.
If the put contract is sold to open, the investor commits to buy shares at $85 while effectively lowering the cost basis to $84.45. This represents an approximate 4% discount from the current trading price of $88.21. Conversely, selling the call contract at $90 could result in a total return of 2.48% if the shares are called away by expiration.
The current chances of the put contract expiring worthless are approximately 66%, while for the call contract, the odds stand at 57%. The implied volatilities for the put and call contracts are 25% and 22%, respectively.
