How are HLX 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 HLX collar priced from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 38.60%), the computed maximum profit is $58.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$42.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.

What is the breakeven for a HLX collar?

The breakeven for the HLX collar priced on this page is roughly $10.42 at expiration, derived from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain's premiums. Breakeven is the underlying price at which the strategy's P&L crosses zero ignoring transaction costs and assignment risk. The HLX market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 11.07%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.

How does current HLX implied volatility affect this collar?

HLX ATM IV is at 38.60% with IV rank near 5.26%, 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.

HLX Collar Strategy

HLX (Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc.), in the Energy sector, (Oil & Gas Equipment & Services industry), listed on NYSE.

Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc., founded in 1979 and based in Houston, Texas, (and known as Cal Dive International, Inc., until its name change in March 2006) is an offshore energy services firm. It provides an array of specialized solutions to the offshore energy sector, primarily across major global regions such as Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, Asia Pacific, and West Africa. The company's operations are divided into three core business units: Well Intervention, Robotics, and Production Facilities. The Robotics segment focuses on complex subsea infrastructure work, encompassing the installation of flowlines, control umbilicals, manifold assemblies, and risers. This also includes the trenching and burial of pipelines, precision tie-in of risers and manifold assemblies, as well as commissioning, testing, inspection activities, and the deployment and connection of cables and umbilicals. Within its Well Intervention segment, Helix offers critical services for well optimization, including intervention engineering and production enhancement.

HLX (Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc.) trades in the Energy sector, specifically Oil & Gas Equipment & Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.49B, a trailing P/E of 37.52, a beta of 1.17 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 5.58-10.75, average daily share volume of 1.7M, a public-listing history dating back to 1997, approximately 2K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how HLX stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.

A beta of 1.17 places HLX roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. The trailing P/E of 37.52 is on the rich side, which tends to correlate with higher earnings-window IV expansion as the market debates whether forward growth supports the multiple.

What is a collar on HLX?

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.

HLX snapshot

As of August 14, 2026, spot at $10.46, ATM IV 38.60%, IV rank 5.26%, expected move 11.07%. The collar on HLX below is built from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain, with strikes snapped to listed contracts and premiums pulled from the bid/ask midpoint at a 35-day expiry.

Why this collar structure on HLX specifically: IV regime affects collar pricing on both sides; compressed HLX IV at 38.60% typically pushes the short call premium to roughly offset the long put cost, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 11.07% (roughly $1.16 on the underlying). The 35-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated HLX expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on HLX should anchor to the underlying notional of $10.46 per share and to the trader's directional view on HLX stock.

HLX collar setup

The HLX collar below is built from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With HLX at $10.46 on that close, the first option leg uses a $11.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed HLX chain at a 35-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 HLX shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).

Action	Type	Strike / Basis	Premium (est)
Buy 100 shares	Stock	$10.46	long
Sell 1	Call	$11.00	$0.29
Buy 1	Put	$10.00	$0.25

HLX collar risk and reward

Net Premium / Debit: -$1,042.00
Max Profit (per contract): $58.00
Max Loss (per contract): -$42.00
Breakeven(s): $10.42
Risk / Reward Ratio: 1.381

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.

HLX collar payoff curve

Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the collar on HLX. 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.

P&L at expiration across the modeled underlying-price range. Green shading marks profitable regions, red shading marks loss regions. Dotted purple verticals mark breakevens; the solid dark vertical marks current spot.

Underlying Price	% From Spot	P&L at Expiration
$0.01	-99.9%	-$42.00
$2.32	-77.8%	-$42.00
$4.63	-55.7%	-$42.00
$6.94	-33.6%	-$42.00
$9.26	-11.5%	-$42.00
$11.57	+10.6%	+$58.00
$13.88	+32.7%	+$58.00
$16.19	+54.8%	+$58.00
$18.50	+76.9%	+$58.00
$20.81	+99.0%	+$58.00

When traders use collar on HLX

Collars on HLX hedge an existing long HLX 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.

HLX thesis for this collar

The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for HLX extends from approximately $9.30 on the downside to $11.62 on the upside. A HLX collar hedges an existing long HLX 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 HLX IV rank near 5.26% 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 HLX at 38.60%. As a Energy name, HLX options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to HLX-specific events.

HLX 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. HLX positions also carry Energy sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move HLX alongside the broader basket even when HLX-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current HLX chain quotes before placing a trade.

Frequently asked questions

What is a collar on HLX?: A collar on HLX is the collar strategy applied to HLX (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 HLX stock at $10.46 on the August 14, 2026 close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed HLX chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
How are HLX 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 HLX collar priced from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 38.60%), the computed maximum profit is $58.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$42.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
What is the breakeven for a HLX collar?: The breakeven for the HLX collar priced on this page is roughly $10.42 at expiration, derived from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain's premiums. Breakeven is the underlying price at which the strategy's P&L crosses zero ignoring transaction costs and assignment risk. The HLX market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 11.07%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
When should you consider a collar on HLX?: Collars on HLX hedge an existing long HLX 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 HLX implied volatility affect this collar?: HLX ATM IV is at 38.60% with IV rank near 5.26%, 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.