HIW Collar Strategy
HIW (Highwoods Properties, Inc.), in the Real Estate sector, (REIT - Office industry), listed on NYSE.
Highwoods Properties, Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW) real estate investment trust (REIT) and a member of the S&P MidCap 400 Index. Highwoods is a fully-integrated office REIT that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa.
HIW (Highwoods Properties, Inc.) trades in the Real Estate sector, specifically REIT - Office, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.87B, a trailing P/E of 30.65, a beta of 1.10 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 20.45-32.76, average daily share volume of 1.4M, a public-listing history dating back to 1994, approximately 350 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how HIW stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.10 places HIW roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. HIW pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a collar on HIW?
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 HIW snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $25.57, ATM IV 61.30%, IV rank 12.01%, expected move 17.57%. The collar on HIW 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 collar structure on HIW specifically: IV regime affects collar pricing on both sides; compressed HIW IV at 61.30% typically pushes the short call premium to roughly offset the long put cost, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 17.57% (roughly $4.49 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 HIW expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on HIW should anchor to the underlying notional of $25.57 per share and to the trader's directional view on HIW stock.
HIW collar setup
The HIW 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 HIW near $25.57, the first option leg uses a $26.85 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed HIW 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 HIW shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $25.57 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $26.85 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Put | $24.29 | N/A |
HIW collar 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
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.
HIW collar payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the collar on HIW. 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 collar on HIW
Collars on HIW hedge an existing long HIW stock 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.
HIW thesis for this collar
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for HIW extends from approximately $21.08 on the downside to $30.06 on the upside. A HIW collar hedges an existing long HIW 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 HIW IV rank near 12.01% 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 HIW at 61.30%. As a Real Estate name, HIW options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to HIW-specific events.
HIW 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. HIW positions also carry Real Estate sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move HIW alongside the broader basket even when HIW-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current HIW chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a collar on HIW?
- A collar on HIW is the collar strategy applied to HIW (stock). 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 HIW stock trading near $25.57, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed HIW chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are HIW 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 HIW collar priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 61.30%), 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 HIW collar?
- The breakeven for the HIW collar 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 HIW market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 17.57%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a collar on HIW?
- Collars on HIW hedge an existing long HIW stock 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 HIW implied volatility affect this collar?
- HIW ATM IV is at 61.30% with IV rank near 12.01%, 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.