HLI Long Put Strategy
HLI (Houlihan Lokey, Inc.), in the Financial Services sector, (Financial - Capital Markets industry), listed on NYSE.
Houlihan Lokey, Inc. is a prominent global investment banking firm offering a comprehensive suite of financial advisory services. These include expertise in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), capital markets, financial restructuring, and valuation. The company's operations are divided into three core segments: The Corporate Finance division provides broad financial guidance. It assists both public and private entities with strategic buy-side and sell-side transactions and a variety of capital-raising activities, such as leveraged loans, private mezzanine debt, high-yield debt, initial public offerings (IPOs), follow-on offerings, convertibles, equity private placements, and private equity investments. This segment also advises financial sponsors on diverse deal structures and liability management initiatives. The Financial Restructuring segment guides debtors, creditors, and other involved parties through complex recapitalization and deleveraging processes.
HLI (Houlihan Lokey, Inc.) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Financial - Capital Markets, with a market capitalization of approximately $9.57B, a trailing P/E of 21.59, a beta of 0.95 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 133.83-211.777, average daily share volume of 677K, 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 0.95 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 long put on HLI?
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 HLI snapshot
As of June 30, 2026, spot at $134.40, ATM IV 33.30%, IV rank 3.27%, expected move 9.55%. The long 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 17-day expiry.
Why this long put structure on HLI specifically: HLI IV at 33.30% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a HLI long put, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 9.55% (roughly $12.83 on the underlying). The 17-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 $134.40 per share and to the trader's directional view on HLI stock.
HLI long put setup
The HLI 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 HLI near $134.40, the first option leg uses a $135.00 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 17-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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Put | $135.00 | $4.25 |
HLI long put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$425.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $13,074.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$425.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $130.75
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 30.762
Max profit equals the strike minus premium times 100 (reached at zero); max loss equals the premium times 100. Breakeven is strike minus premium.
HLI long put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the long 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% | +$13,074.00 |
| $29.73 | -77.9% | +$10,102.45 |
| $59.44 | -55.8% | +$7,130.90 |
| $89.16 | -33.7% | +$4,159.36 |
| $118.87 | -11.6% | +$1,187.81 |
| $148.59 | +10.6% | -$425.00 |
| $178.30 | +32.7% | -$425.00 |
| $208.02 | +54.8% | -$425.00 |
| $237.73 | +76.9% | -$425.00 |
| $267.45 | +99.0% | -$425.00 |
When traders use long put on HLI
Long puts on HLI hedge an existing long HLI stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying HLI exposure being hedged.
HLI thesis for this long put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for HLI extends from approximately $121.57 on the downside to $147.23 on the upside. A HLI long put expresses a directional view that the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration, frequently sized to hedge an existing long HLI position with one put per 100 shares held. Current HLI IV rank near 3.27% 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 33.30%. 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 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. 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. Long-premium structures like a long put on HLI 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 HLI chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a long put on HLI?
- A long put on HLI is the long put strategy applied to HLI (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 HLI stock trading near $134.40, 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 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 HLI long put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 33.30%), the computed maximum profit is $13,074.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$425.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a HLI long put?
- The breakeven for the HLI long put priced on this page is roughly $130.75 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 9.55%; 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 HLI?
- Long puts on HLI hedge an existing long HLI stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying HLI exposure being hedged.
- How does current HLI implied volatility affect this long put?
- HLI ATM IV is at 33.30% with IV rank near 3.27%, 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.