CBZ Strangle Strategy
CBZ (CBIZ, Inc.), in the Industrials sector, (Specialty Business Services industry), listed on NYSE.
CBIZ, Inc. provides financial, insurance, and advisory services in the United States and Canada. The company operates through three segments: Financial Services, Benefits and Insurance Services, and National Practices. The Financial Services segment offers accounting and tax, financial advisory, valuation, risk and advisory, and government healthcare consulting services. The Benefits and Insurance Services provides employee benefits consulting, payroll/human capital management, property and casualty insurance, and retirement and investment services. The National Practices segment offers information technology managed networking and hardware, and health care consulting services. It primarily serves small and medium-sized businesses, as well as individuals, governmental entities, and not-for-profit enterprises.
CBZ (CBIZ, Inc.) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Specialty Business Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.53B, a trailing P/E of 11.39, a beta of 0.97 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 24.29-77.91, average daily share volume of 1.3M, a public-listing history dating back to 1995, approximately 10K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how CBZ stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.97 places CBZ roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. The trailing P/E of 11.39 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price.
What is a strangle on CBZ?
A long strangle buys an OTM call and an OTM put at offset strikes, cheaper than a straddle but requiring a larger underlying move to profit since both wings start out-of-the-money.
Current CBZ snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $28.73, ATM IV 58.70%, IV rank 9.10%, expected move 16.83%. The strangle on CBZ 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 strangle structure on CBZ specifically: CBZ IV at 58.70% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a CBZ strangle, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 16.83% (roughly $4.83 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 CBZ expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on CBZ should anchor to the underlying notional of $28.73 per share and to the trader's directional view on CBZ stock.
CBZ strangle setup
The CBZ strangle below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With CBZ near $28.73, the first option leg uses a $30.17 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed CBZ 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 CBZ shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $30.17 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Put | $27.29 | N/A |
CBZ strangle 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
Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the put strike minus the combined debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached anywhere between the two OTM strikes). Two breakevens at call-strike plus debit and put-strike minus debit.
CBZ strangle payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the strangle on CBZ. 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 strangle on CBZ
Strangles on CBZ are the cheaper cousin of the straddle - traders use them when they want a large directional move but are willing to give up the inner-strike sensitivity in exchange for a lower up-front debit on the CBZ chain.
CBZ thesis for this strangle
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for CBZ extends from approximately $23.90 on the downside to $33.56 on the upside. A CBZ long strangle is the OTM cousin of the straddle: lower up-front cost but the underlying has to travel further past either OTM strike before the position turns profitable at expiration. Current CBZ IV rank near 9.10% 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 CBZ at 58.70%. As a Industrials name, CBZ options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to CBZ-specific events.
CBZ strangle positions are structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium, OTM); 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. CBZ positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move CBZ alongside the broader basket even when CBZ-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current CBZ chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a strangle on CBZ?
- A strangle on CBZ is the strangle strategy applied to CBZ (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium, OTM): A long strangle buys an OTM call and an OTM put at offset strikes, cheaper than a straddle but requiring a larger underlying move to profit since both wings start out-of-the-money. With CBZ stock trading near $28.73, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed CBZ chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are CBZ strangle max profit and max loss calculated?
- Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the put strike minus the combined debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached anywhere between the two OTM strikes). Two breakevens at call-strike plus debit and put-strike minus debit. For the CBZ strangle priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 58.70%), 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 CBZ strangle?
- The breakeven for the CBZ strangle 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 CBZ market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 16.83%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a strangle on CBZ?
- Strangles on CBZ are the cheaper cousin of the straddle - traders use them when they want a large directional move but are willing to give up the inner-strike sensitivity in exchange for a lower up-front debit on the CBZ chain.
- How does current CBZ implied volatility affect this strangle?
- CBZ ATM IV is at 58.70% with IV rank near 9.10%, 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.