HCA Bear Put Spread Strategy
HCA (HCA Healthcare, Inc.), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Care Facilities industry), listed on NYSE.
HCA Healthcare, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides health care services company in the United States. The company operates general and acute care hospitals that offers medical and surgical services, including inpatient care, intensive care, cardiac care, diagnostic, and emergency services; and outpatient services, such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology, and physical therapy. It also operates outpatient health care facilities consisting of freestanding ambulatory surgery centers, freestanding emergency care facilities, urgent care facilities, walk-in clinics, diagnostic and imaging centers, rehabilitation and physical therapy centers, radiation and oncology therapy centers, physician practices, and various other facilities. In addition, the company operates psychiatric hospitals, which provide therapeutic programs comprising child, adolescent and adult psychiatric care, adolescent and adult alcohol, drug abuse treatment, and counseling services. As of December 31, 2021, it operated 182 hospitals, including 175 general and acute care hospitals, five psychiatric hospitals, and two rehabilitation hospitals; 125 freestanding surgery centers; and 21 freestanding endoscopy centers in 20 states and England. The company was formerly known as HCA Holdings, Inc.
HCA (HCA Healthcare, Inc.) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Care Facilities, with a market capitalization of approximately $94.85B, a trailing P/E of 14.26, a beta of 1.19 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 330-556.52, average daily share volume of 1.2M, a public-listing history dating back to 2011, approximately 320K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how HCA stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.19 places HCA roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. HCA pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a bear put spread on HCA?
A bear put spread buys an at-the-money put and sells an out-of-the-money put at a lower strike for defined risk and defined reward bounded by the strike width.
Current HCA snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $424.83, ATM IV 28.80%, IV rank 35.10%, expected move 8.26%. The bear put spread on HCA 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 bear put spread structure on HCA specifically: HCA IV at 28.80% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so strategy selection should anchor more to the directional thesis than to the IV regime, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 8.26% (roughly $35.08 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 HCA expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on HCA should anchor to the underlying notional of $424.83 per share and to the trader's directional view on HCA stock.
HCA bear put spread setup
The HCA bear put spread below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With HCA near $424.83, the first option leg uses a $425.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed HCA 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 HCA shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Put | $425.00 | $14.30 |
| Sell 1 | Put | $405.00 | $6.65 |
HCA bear put spread risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$765.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $1,235.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$765.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $417.35
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 1.614
Max profit equals strike width minus net debit times 100; max loss equals net debit times 100. Breakeven is long-put strike minus net debit.
HCA bear put spread payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the bear put spread on HCA. 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% | +$1,235.00 |
| $93.94 | -77.9% | +$1,235.00 |
| $187.87 | -55.8% | +$1,235.00 |
| $281.80 | -33.7% | +$1,235.00 |
| $375.73 | -11.6% | +$1,235.00 |
| $469.67 | +10.6% | -$765.00 |
| $563.60 | +32.7% | -$765.00 |
| $657.53 | +54.8% | -$765.00 |
| $751.46 | +76.9% | -$765.00 |
| $845.39 | +99.0% | -$765.00 |
When traders use bear put spread on HCA
Bear put spreads on HCA reduce the cost of a bearish HCA stock position by selling a lower-strike put; suited to moderate-decline theses where price reaches but does not vastly exceed the short strike.
HCA thesis for this bear put spread
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for HCA extends from approximately $389.75 on the downside to $459.91 on the upside. A HCA bear put spread caps both the risk and the reward of a bearish position; relative to an outright long put on HCA, the spread reduces the cost basis but limits the maximum profit to the strike width minus net debit. Current HCA IV rank near 35.10% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the bear put spread thesis on HCA should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Healthcare name, HCA options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to HCA-specific events.
HCA bear put spread positions are structurally moderately 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. HCA positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move HCA alongside the broader basket even when HCA-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a bear put spread on HCA 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 HCA chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a bear put spread on HCA?
- A bear put spread on HCA is the bear put spread strategy applied to HCA (stock). The strategy is structurally moderately bearish: A bear put spread buys an at-the-money put and sells an out-of-the-money put at a lower strike for defined risk and defined reward bounded by the strike width. With HCA stock trading near $424.83, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed HCA chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are HCA bear put spread max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals strike width minus net debit times 100; max loss equals net debit times 100. Breakeven is long-put strike minus net debit. For the HCA bear put spread priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 28.80%), the computed maximum profit is $1,235.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$765.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a HCA bear put spread?
- The breakeven for the HCA bear put spread priced on this page is roughly $417.35 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 HCA market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 8.26%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a bear put spread on HCA?
- Bear put spreads on HCA reduce the cost of a bearish HCA stock position by selling a lower-strike put; suited to moderate-decline theses where price reaches but does not vastly exceed the short strike.
- How does current HCA implied volatility affect this bear put spread?
- HCA ATM IV is at 28.80% with IV rank near 35.10%, which is mid-range against its 1-year history. Strategy selection depends more on directional thesis and expected move than on a strong IV signal.