YCS Collar Strategy
YCS (ProShares - UltraShort Yen), in the Financial Services sector, (Asset Management - Leveraged industry), listed on AMEX.
ProShares UltraShort Yen seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times the inverse (-2x) of the daily performance of the price of the Japanese yen versus the U.S. dollar.
YCS (ProShares - UltraShort Yen) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Asset Management - Leveraged, with a market capitalization of approximately $28.9M, a beta of -0.41 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 40.08-54.67, average daily share volume of 31K, a public-listing history dating back to 2008. These structural characteristics shape how YCS etf options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of -0.41 indicates YCS has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure.
What is a collar on YCS?
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 YCS snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $53.51, ATM IV 17.90%, IV rank 14.78%, expected move 5.13%. The collar on YCS 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 98-day expiry.
Why this collar structure on YCS specifically: IV regime affects collar pricing on both sides; compressed YCS IV at 17.90% typically pushes the short call premium to roughly offset the long put cost, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 5.13% (roughly $2.75 on the underlying). The 98-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated YCS expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on YCS should anchor to the underlying notional of $53.51 per share and to the trader's directional view on YCS etf.
YCS collar setup
The YCS 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 YCS near $53.51, the first option leg uses a $56.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed YCS chain at a 98-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 YCS shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $53.51 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $56.00 | $0.83 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $51.00 | $0.88 |
YCS collar risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$5,356.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $244.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$256.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $53.56
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.953
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.
YCS collar payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the collar on YCS. 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.
| Underlying Price | % From Spot | P&L at Expiration |
|---|---|---|
| $0.01 | -100.0% | -$256.00 |
| $11.84 | -77.9% | -$256.00 |
| $23.67 | -55.8% | -$256.00 |
| $35.50 | -33.7% | -$256.00 |
| $47.33 | -11.5% | -$256.00 |
| $59.16 | +10.6% | +$244.00 |
| $70.99 | +32.7% | +$244.00 |
| $82.82 | +54.8% | +$244.00 |
| $94.65 | +76.9% | +$244.00 |
| $106.48 | +99.0% | +$244.00 |
When traders use collar on YCS
Collars on YCS hedge an existing long YCS 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.
YCS thesis for this collar
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for YCS extends from approximately $50.76 on the downside to $56.26 on the upside. A YCS collar hedges an existing long YCS 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 YCS IV rank near 14.78% 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 YCS at 17.90%. As a Financial Services name, YCS options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to YCS-specific events.
YCS 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. YCS positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move YCS alongside the broader basket even when YCS-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current YCS chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a collar on YCS?
- A collar on YCS is the collar strategy applied to YCS (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 YCS etf trading near $53.51, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed YCS chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are YCS 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 YCS collar priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 17.90%), the computed maximum profit is $244.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$256.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a YCS collar?
- The breakeven for the YCS collar priced on this page is roughly $53.56 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 YCS market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 5.13%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a collar on YCS?
- Collars on YCS hedge an existing long YCS 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 YCS implied volatility affect this collar?
- YCS ATM IV is at 17.90% with IV rank near 14.78%, 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.