HIW Strangle 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 strangle on HIW?
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 HIW snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $25.57, ATM IV 61.30%, IV rank 12.01%, expected move 17.57%. The strangle 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 strangle structure on HIW specifically: HIW IV at 61.30% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a HIW strangle, 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 strangle setup
The HIW 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 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 1 | Call | $26.85 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Put | $24.29 | N/A |
HIW 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.
HIW strangle payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the strangle 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 strangle on HIW
Strangles on HIW 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 HIW chain.
HIW thesis for this strangle
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 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 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 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. 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 strangle on HIW?
- A strangle on HIW is the strangle strategy applied to HIW (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 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 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 HIW strangle 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 strangle?
- The breakeven for the HIW 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 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 strangle on HIW?
- Strangles on HIW 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 HIW chain.
- How does current HIW implied volatility affect this strangle?
- 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.