HTGC Long Put Strategy
HTGC (Hercules Capital, Inc.), in the Financial Services sector, (Asset Management industry), listed on NYSE.
Hercules Capital, Inc. is a business development company. The firm specializing in providing private equity, venture debt, and growth capital to privately held venture capital-backed companies at all stages of development from mid venture to expansion stage including select publicly listed companies and select special opportunity companies that require additional capital to fund acquisitions, recapitalizations and refinancing and established-stage companies. The firm provides growth capital financing solutions for capital extension; management buy-out and corporate spin-out financing solutions; company, asset specific, or intellectual property acquisition financing; convertible, subordinated and/or mezzanine loans; domestic and international corporate expansion; vendor financing; revenue acceleration by sales and marketing development, and manufacturing expansion. It provides asset-based financing with a focus on cash flow; accounts receivable facilities; equipment loans or leases; equipment acquisition; facilities build-out and/or expansion; working capital revolving lines of credit; inventory. The firm also provides bridge financing to IPO or mergers and acquisitions or technology acquisition; dividend recapitalizations and other sources of investor liquidity; cash flow financing to protect against share price volatility; competitor acquisition; pre-IPO financing for extra cash on the balance sheet; public company financing to continue asset growth and production capacity; short-term bridge financing; and strategic and intellectual property acquisition financings. It also focuses on customized financing solutions, emerging growth, mid venture, and late venture financing.
HTGC (Hercules Capital, Inc.) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Asset Management, with a market capitalization of approximately $3.11B, a trailing P/E of 8.04, a beta of 0.74 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 13.7-19.62, average daily share volume of 1.7M, a public-listing history dating back to 2005, approximately 100 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how HTGC stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.74 places HTGC roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. The trailing P/E of 8.04 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price. HTGC pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a long put on HTGC?
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.
HTGC snapshot
As of August 14, 2026, spot at $16.74, ATM IV 436.60%, IV rank 95.72%, expected move 125.17%. The long put on HTGC 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 7-day expiry.
Why this long put structure on HTGC specifically: HTGC IV at 436.60% is rich versus its 1-year range, which makes a premium-buying HTGC long put relatively expensive in absolute-cost terms, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 125.17% (roughly $20.95 on the underlying). The 7-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated HTGC expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on HTGC should anchor to the underlying notional of $16.74 per share and to the trader's directional view on HTGC stock.
HTGC long put setup
The HTGC long put 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 HTGC at $16.74 on that close, the first option leg uses a $17.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed HTGC chain at a 7-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 HTGC shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Put | $17.00 | $0.37 |
HTGC long put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$37.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $1,662.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$37.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $16.63
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 44.919
Max profit equals the strike minus premium times 100 (reached at zero); max loss equals the premium times 100. Breakeven is strike minus premium.
HTGC long put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the long put on HTGC. 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 | -99.9% | +$1,662.00 |
| $3.71 | -77.8% | +$1,291.98 |
| $7.41 | -55.7% | +$921.96 |
| $11.11 | -33.6% | +$551.94 |
| $14.81 | -11.5% | +$181.92 |
| $18.51 | +10.6% | -$37.00 |
| $22.21 | +32.7% | -$37.00 |
| $25.91 | +54.8% | -$37.00 |
| $29.61 | +76.9% | -$37.00 |
| $33.31 | +99.0% | -$37.00 |
When traders use long put on HTGC
Long puts on HTGC hedge an existing long HTGC stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying HTGC exposure being hedged.
HTGC thesis for this long put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for HTGC extends from approximately $-4.21 on the downside to $37.69 on the upside. A HTGC long put expresses a directional view that the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration, frequently sized to hedge an existing long HTGC position with one put per 100 shares held. Current HTGC IV rank near 95.72% sits in the upper third of its 1-year distribution, which historically reverts; this raises the bar for premium-buying structures and lowers it for premium-selling structures on HTGC at 436.60%. As a Financial Services name, HTGC options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to HTGC-specific events.
HTGC 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. HTGC positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move HTGC alongside the broader basket even when HTGC-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a long put on HTGC 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 HTGC chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a long put on HTGC?
- A long put on HTGC is the long put strategy applied to HTGC (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 HTGC stock at $16.74 on the August 14, 2026 close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed HTGC chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
- How are HTGC 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 HTGC long put priced from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 436.60%), the computed maximum profit is $1,662.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$37.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a HTGC long put?
- The breakeven for the HTGC long put priced on this page is roughly $16.63 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 HTGC market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 125.17%; 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 HTGC?
- Long puts on HTGC hedge an existing long HTGC stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying HTGC exposure being hedged.
- How does current HTGC implied volatility affect this long put?
- HTGC ATM IV is at 436.60% with IV rank near 95.72%, which is elevated relative to its 1-year range. Premium-selling structures (covered call, cash-secured put, iron condor) generally look more attractive when IV rank is high; premium-buying structures (long call, long put, debit spreads) are more expensive in that regime.