CELC Straddle Strategy
CELC (Celcuity Inc.), in the Healthcare sector, (Biotechnology industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Celcuity, Inc. operates as a cellular analysis company. The company discovers new cancer sub-types and commercializing diagnostic tests designed to improve the clinical outcomes of cancer patients treated with targeted therapies. The firm's proprietary CELx diagnostic platform is the commercially ready technology that uses a patient's living tumor cells to identify the specific abnormal cellular process driving a patient's cancer and the targeted therapy that treats it. The company was founded by Brian F. Sullivan and Lance G. Laing in January 2012 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN.
CELC (Celcuity Inc.) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Biotechnology, with a market capitalization of approximately $4.49B, a beta of 0.16 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 44.42-151.02, average daily share volume of 1.4M, a public-listing history dating back to 2017, approximately 155 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how CELC stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.16 indicates CELC 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 straddle on CELC?
A long straddle buys an ATM call and an ATM put at the same strike, profiting from a large move in either direction; max loss equals the combined debit when the underlying pins to the strike at expiration.
CELC snapshot
As of August 14, 2026, spot at $92.11, ATM IV 64.20%, IV rank 14.91%, expected move 18.41%. The straddle on CELC below is built from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain, with strikes snapped to listed contracts and premiums pulled from the bid/ask midpoint at a 35-day expiry.
Why this straddle structure on CELC specifically: CELC IV at 64.20% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a CELC straddle, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 18.41% (roughly $16.95 on the underlying). The 35-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated CELC expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on CELC should anchor to the underlying notional of $92.11 per share and to the trader's directional view on CELC stock.
CELC straddle setup
The CELC straddle below is built from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With CELC at $92.11 on that close, the first option leg uses a $90.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed CELC chain at a 35-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 CELC shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $90.00 | $9.00 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $90.00 | $5.65 |
CELC straddle risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$1,465.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$1,445.08
- Breakeven(s)
- $75.35, $104.65
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- Unbounded
Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the strike minus the combined call plus put debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached when the underlying pins to the strike). Two breakevens at strike plus debit and strike minus debit.
CELC straddle payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the straddle on CELC. 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% | +$7,534.00 |
| $20.37 | -77.9% | +$5,497.51 |
| $40.74 | -55.8% | +$3,461.02 |
| $61.10 | -33.7% | +$1,424.52 |
| $81.47 | -11.6% | -$611.97 |
| $101.83 | +10.6% | -$281.54 |
| $122.20 | +32.7% | +$1,754.95 |
| $142.56 | +54.8% | +$3,791.45 |
| $162.93 | +76.9% | +$5,827.94 |
| $183.29 | +99.0% | +$7,864.43 |
When traders use straddle on CELC
Straddles on CELC are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy CELC straddles ahead of earnings, FDA decisions, or other catalysts where the realized move is expected to exceed the implied move priced into the chain.
CELC thesis for this straddle
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for CELC extends from approximately $75.16 on the downside to $109.06 on the upside. A CELC long straddle is a pure-volatility play: it profits when the underlying moves far enough from the strike in either direction to overcome the combined call plus put debit, regardless of direction. Current CELC IV rank near 14.91% 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 CELC at 64.20%. As a Healthcare name, CELC options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to CELC-specific events.
CELC straddle positions are structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium); 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. CELC positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move CELC alongside the broader basket even when CELC-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current CELC chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a straddle on CELC?
- A straddle on CELC is the straddle strategy applied to CELC (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium): A long straddle buys an ATM call and an ATM put at the same strike, profiting from a large move in either direction; max loss equals the combined debit when the underlying pins to the strike at expiration. With CELC stock at $92.11 on the August 14, 2026 close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed CELC chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
- How are CELC straddle max profit and max loss calculated?
- Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the strike minus the combined call plus put debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached when the underlying pins to the strike). Two breakevens at strike plus debit and strike minus debit. For the CELC straddle priced from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 64.20%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$1,445.08 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a CELC straddle?
- The breakeven for the CELC straddle priced on this page is roughly $75.35 and $104.65 at expiration, derived from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain's premiums. Breakeven is the underlying price at which the strategy's P&L crosses zero ignoring transaction costs and assignment risk. The CELC market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 18.41%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a straddle on CELC?
- Straddles on CELC are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy CELC straddles ahead of earnings, FDA decisions, or other catalysts where the realized move is expected to exceed the implied move priced into the chain.
- How does current CELC implied volatility affect this straddle?
- CELC ATM IV is at 64.20% with IV rank near 14.91%, 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.