HLI Cash-Secured Put Strategy
HLI (Houlihan Lokey, Inc.), in the Financial Services sector, (Financial - Capital Markets industry), listed on NYSE.
Houlihan Lokey, Inc., an investment banking company, provides merger and acquisition (M&A), capital market, financial restructuring, and financial and valuation advisory services worldwide. It operates in three segments: Corporate Finance, Financial Restructuring, and Financial and Valuation Advisory. The Corporate Finance segment offers general financial advisory services; and advises public and private institutions on buy-side and sell-side transactions, leveraged loans, private mezzanine debt, high-yield debt, initial public offerings, follow-ons, convertibles, equity private placements, private equity, and liability management transactions, as well as advise financial sponsors on various transactions. The Financial Restructuring segment advises debtors, creditors, and other parties-in-interest related to recapitalization/deleveraging transactions. It also provides a range of advisory services, including structuring, negotiation, and confirmation of plans of reorganization; structuring and analysis of exchange offers; corporate viability assessment; dispute resolution and expert testimony; and procuring debtor-in-possession financing. The Financial and Valuation Advisory segment offers valuations of various assets, such as companies, illiquid debt and equity securities, and intellectual property.
HLI (Houlihan Lokey, Inc.) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Financial - Capital Markets, with a market capitalization of approximately $10.46B, a trailing P/E of 23.46, a beta of 1.00 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 134.41-211.777, average daily share volume of 653K, a public-listing history dating back to 2015, approximately 3K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how HLI stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.00 places HLI roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. HLI pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a cash-secured put on HLI?
A cash-secured put sells an out-of-the-money put while holding cash equal to the strike-times-100 obligation, keeping the premium when the underlying stays above the strike.
Current HLI snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $150.38, ATM IV 32.50%, IV rank 5.17%, expected move 9.32%. The cash-secured put on HLI 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 cash-secured put structure on HLI specifically: HLI IV at 32.50% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling HLI cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 9.32% (roughly $14.01 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 HLI expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on HLI should anchor to the underlying notional of $150.38 per share and to the trader's directional view on HLI stock.
HLI cash-secured put setup
The HLI cash-secured 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 HLI near $150.38, the first option leg uses a $145.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed HLI 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 HLI shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $145.00 | $3.80 |
HLI cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$380.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $380.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$14,119.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $141.20
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.027
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
HLI cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on HLI. 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% | -$14,119.00 |
| $33.26 | -77.9% | -$10,794.13 |
| $66.51 | -55.8% | -$7,469.25 |
| $99.76 | -33.7% | -$4,144.38 |
| $133.00 | -11.6% | -$819.50 |
| $166.25 | +10.6% | +$380.00 |
| $199.50 | +32.7% | +$380.00 |
| $232.75 | +54.8% | +$380.00 |
| $266.00 | +76.9% | +$380.00 |
| $299.25 | +99.0% | +$380.00 |
When traders use cash-secured put on HLI
Cash-secured puts on HLI earn premium while a trader waits to acquire HLI stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning HLI.
HLI thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for HLI extends from approximately $136.37 on the downside to $164.39 on the upside. A HLI cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire HLI at the strike price; the strategy is most attractive when the trader is comfortable holding the underlying at that level and IV is rich enough to compensate for the assignment risk. Current HLI IV rank near 5.17% 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 HLI at 32.50%. As a Financial Services name, HLI options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to HLI-specific events.
HLI cash-secured put positions are structurally neutral to slightly bullish; 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. HLI positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move HLI alongside the broader basket even when HLI-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on HLI carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical HLI earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current HLI chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on HLI?
- A cash-secured put on HLI is the cash-secured put strategy applied to HLI (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral to slightly bullish: A cash-secured put sells an out-of-the-money put while holding cash equal to the strike-times-100 obligation, keeping the premium when the underlying stays above the strike. With HLI stock trading near $150.38, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed HLI chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are HLI cash-secured put max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium. For the HLI cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 32.50%), the computed maximum profit is $380.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$14,119.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a HLI cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the HLI cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $141.20 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 HLI market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 9.32%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a cash-secured put on HLI?
- Cash-secured puts on HLI earn premium while a trader waits to acquire HLI stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning HLI.
- How does current HLI implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- HLI ATM IV is at 32.50% with IV rank near 5.17%, 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.