CYTK Long Put Strategy
CYTK (Cytokinetics, Incorporated), in the Healthcare sector, (Biotechnology industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Cytokinetics, Incorporated, a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing muscle activators and inhibitors as potential treatments for debilitating diseases. The company develops small molecule drug candidates primarily engineered to impact muscle function and contractility. Its drug candidates include omecamtiv mecarbil, a novel cardiac myosin activator that is in Phase III clinical trial in patients with heart failure; and reldesemtiv, a skeletal muscle troponin activator, which is in Phase III clinical trial to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and spinal muscular atrophy. The company also develops CK-136, a novel cardiac troponin activator that is in Phase I clinical trial; aficamten, a novel cardiac myosin inhibitor, which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of patients with symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; and CK-3772271, a small molecule cardiac myosin inhibitor that is in Phase I clinical trial. Cytokinetics, Incorporated has a strategic alliance with Astellas Pharma Inc. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.
CYTK (Cytokinetics, Incorporated) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Biotechnology, with a market capitalization of approximately $9.61B, a beta of 0.38 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 29.31-80.2, average daily share volume of 2.5M, a public-listing history dating back to 2004, approximately 498 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how CYTK stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.38 indicates CYTK 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 long put on CYTK?
A long put buys downside exposure with a fixed maximum loss equal to the premium paid; profit accrues if the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration.
Current CYTK snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $75.91, ATM IV 49.30%, IV rank 2.71%, expected move 14.13%. The long put on CYTK 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 long put structure on CYTK specifically: CYTK IV at 49.30% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a CYTK long put, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 14.13% (roughly $10.73 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 CYTK expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on CYTK should anchor to the underlying notional of $75.91 per share and to the trader's directional view on CYTK stock.
CYTK long put setup
The CYTK long put below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With CYTK near $75.91, the first option leg uses a $75.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed CYTK 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 CYTK shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Put | $75.00 | $3.85 |
CYTK long put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$385.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $7,114.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$385.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $71.15
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 18.478
Max profit equals the strike minus premium times 100 (reached at zero); max loss equals the premium times 100. Breakeven is strike minus premium.
CYTK long put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the long put on CYTK. 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% | +$7,114.00 |
| $16.79 | -77.9% | +$5,435.70 |
| $33.58 | -55.8% | +$3,757.40 |
| $50.36 | -33.7% | +$2,079.10 |
| $67.14 | -11.6% | +$400.79 |
| $83.93 | +10.6% | -$385.00 |
| $100.71 | +32.7% | -$385.00 |
| $117.49 | +54.8% | -$385.00 |
| $134.27 | +76.9% | -$385.00 |
| $151.06 | +99.0% | -$385.00 |
When traders use long put on CYTK
Long puts on CYTK hedge an existing long CYTK stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying CYTK exposure being hedged.
CYTK thesis for this long put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for CYTK extends from approximately $65.18 on the downside to $86.64 on the upside. A CYTK long put expresses a directional view that the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration, frequently sized to hedge an existing long CYTK position with one put per 100 shares held. Current CYTK IV rank near 2.71% 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 CYTK at 49.30%. As a Healthcare name, CYTK options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to CYTK-specific events.
CYTK long put positions are structurally bearish; 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. CYTK positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move CYTK alongside the broader basket even when CYTK-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a long put on CYTK are particularly exposed to IV-crush risk through scheduled events (earnings, FDA decisions, central-bank meetings) where IV typically contracts post-event regardless of the directional outcome. Always rebuild the position from current CYTK chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a long put on CYTK?
- A long put on CYTK is the long put strategy applied to CYTK (stock). The strategy is structurally bearish: A long put buys downside exposure with a fixed maximum loss equal to the premium paid; profit accrues if the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration. With CYTK stock trading near $75.91, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed CYTK chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are CYTK long put max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals the strike minus premium times 100 (reached at zero); max loss equals the premium times 100. Breakeven is strike minus premium. For the CYTK long put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 49.30%), the computed maximum profit is $7,114.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$385.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a CYTK long put?
- The breakeven for the CYTK long put priced on this page is roughly $71.15 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 CYTK market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 14.13%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a long put on CYTK?
- Long puts on CYTK hedge an existing long CYTK stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying CYTK exposure being hedged.
- How does current CYTK implied volatility affect this long put?
- CYTK ATM IV is at 49.30% with IV rank near 2.71%, 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.