FTQI Collar Strategy
FTQI (First Trust Nasdaq BuyWrite Income ETF), in the Financial Services sector, (Asset Management - Income industry), listed on NASDAQ.
The Fund's investment objective is to provide current income. The Fund will pursue its investment objective by investing primarily in equity securities listed on U.S. exchanges and by utilizing an "option strategy" consisting of writing (selling) U.S. exchange-traded covered call options on the Nasdaq-100 Index. The Fund will employ an option strategy in which it will write U.S. exchange-traded covered call options on the Nasdaq-100 Index in order to seek additional cash flow in the form of premiums on the options. A premium is the income received by an investor who sells an option contract to another party and may be distributed to shareholders on a monthly basis.
FTQI (First Trust Nasdaq BuyWrite Income ETF) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Asset Management - Income, with a market capitalization of approximately $818.8M, a beta of 0.68 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 18.72-21.63, average daily share volume of 370K, a public-listing history dating back to 2014. These structural characteristics shape how FTQI etf options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.68 indicates FTQI has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. FTQI pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a collar on FTQI?
A collar pairs long stock with a protective out-of-the-money put financed by a short out-of-the-money call, capping both tails of the position around the current spot.
Current FTQI snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $21.57, ATM IV 31.70%, IV rank 18.78%, expected move 9.09%. The collar on FTQI 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 collar structure on FTQI specifically: IV regime affects collar pricing on both sides; compressed FTQI IV at 31.70% typically pushes the short call premium to roughly offset the long put cost, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 9.09% (roughly $1.96 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 FTQI expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on FTQI should anchor to the underlying notional of $21.57 per share and to the trader's directional view on FTQI etf.
FTQI collar setup
The FTQI collar below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With FTQI near $21.57, the first option leg uses a $22.65 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed FTQI 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 FTQI shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $21.57 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $22.65 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Put | $20.49 | N/A |
FTQI collar 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 roughly equals short-call strike minus cost basis plus net premium; max loss roughly equals cost basis minus long-put strike minus net premium. Breakeven shifts by the net premium.
FTQI collar payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the collar on FTQI. 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 collar on FTQI
Collars on FTQI hedge an existing long FTQI etf position; the long put sets a floor while the short call finances it, often run as a near-zero-cost hedge during expected volatility windows.
FTQI thesis for this collar
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for FTQI extends from approximately $19.61 on the downside to $23.53 on the upside. A FTQI collar hedges an existing long FTQI position with a protective put while financing the put cost via a short call; when the premiums roughly offset, the collar acts as a near-zero-cost insurance band around the current spot. Current FTQI IV rank near 18.78% 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 FTQI at 31.70%. As a Financial Services name, FTQI options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to FTQI-specific events.
FTQI collar positions are structurally neutral (protective); 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. FTQI positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move FTQI alongside the broader basket even when FTQI-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current FTQI chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a collar on FTQI?
- A collar on FTQI is the collar strategy applied to FTQI (etf). The strategy is structurally neutral (protective): A collar pairs long stock with a protective out-of-the-money put financed by a short out-of-the-money call, capping both tails of the position around the current spot. With FTQI etf trading near $21.57, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed FTQI chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are FTQI collar max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit roughly equals short-call strike minus cost basis plus net premium; max loss roughly equals cost basis minus long-put strike minus net premium. Breakeven shifts by the net premium. For the FTQI collar priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 31.70%), 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 FTQI collar?
- The breakeven for the FTQI collar 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 FTQI market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 9.09%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a collar on FTQI?
- Collars on FTQI hedge an existing long FTQI etf position; the long put sets a floor while the short call finances it, often run as a near-zero-cost hedge during expected volatility windows.
- How does current FTQI implied volatility affect this collar?
- FTQI ATM IV is at 31.70% with IV rank near 18.78%, 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.