ICLR Straddle Strategy
ICLR (ICON Public Limited Company), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Diagnostics & Research industry), listed on NASDAQ.
ICON Public Limited Company, a clinical research organization, provides outsourced development and commercialization services in Ireland, rest of Europe, the United States, and internationally. The company specializes in the strategic development, management, and analysis of programs that support various stages of the clinical development process from compound selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies. It offers clinical development services, including early development, patient recruitment and retention, strategy and analytics, late phase research, data and technology solution, and consulting and analytics services. The company's clinical development services also comprise medical imaging, clinical research and laboratory services, project management, site monitoring and management services, data management, biostatistics and programming, medical writing and publishing, medical affair, endpoint adjudication/data monitoring committees, pharmacovigilance, interactive response technologies, clinical supplies management, strategic regulatory, medical communication, and consulting and advisory services. It serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, as well as government and public health organizations. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.
ICLR (ICON Public Limited Company) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Diagnostics & Research, with a market capitalization of approximately $8.96B, a trailing P/E of 15.15, a beta of 1.23 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 66.57-211, average daily share volume of 1.3M, a public-listing history dating back to 1998, approximately 41K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how ICLR stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.23 places ICLR roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline.
What is a straddle on ICLR?
A long straddle buys an ATM call and an ATM put at the same strike, profiting from a large move in either direction; max loss equals the combined debit when the underlying pins to the strike at expiration.
Current ICLR snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $115.55, ATM IV 69.00%, IV rank 52.08%, expected move 19.78%. The straddle on ICLR 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 straddle structure on ICLR specifically: ICLR IV at 69.00% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so strategy selection should anchor more to the directional thesis than to the IV regime, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 19.78% (roughly $22.86 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 ICLR expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on ICLR should anchor to the underlying notional of $115.55 per share and to the trader's directional view on ICLR stock.
ICLR straddle setup
The ICLR straddle below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With ICLR near $115.55, the first option leg uses a $115.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed ICLR 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 ICLR shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $115.00 | $11.35 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $115.00 | $8.75 |
ICLR straddle risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$2,010.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$2,007.44
- Breakeven(s)
- $94.90, $135.10
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- Unbounded
Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the strike minus the combined call plus put debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached when the underlying pins to the strike). Two breakevens at strike plus debit and strike minus debit.
ICLR straddle payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the straddle on ICLR. 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% | +$9,489.00 |
| $25.56 | -77.9% | +$6,934.24 |
| $51.11 | -55.8% | +$4,379.47 |
| $76.65 | -33.7% | +$1,824.71 |
| $102.20 | -11.6% | -$730.06 |
| $127.75 | +10.6% | -$735.18 |
| $153.30 | +32.7% | +$1,819.58 |
| $178.84 | +54.8% | +$4,374.35 |
| $204.39 | +76.9% | +$6,929.11 |
| $229.94 | +99.0% | +$9,483.87 |
When traders use straddle on ICLR
Straddles on ICLR are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy ICLR straddles ahead of earnings, FDA decisions, or other catalysts where the realized move is expected to exceed the implied move priced into the chain.
ICLR thesis for this straddle
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for ICLR extends from approximately $92.69 on the downside to $138.41 on the upside. A ICLR long straddle is a pure-volatility play: it profits when the underlying moves far enough from the strike in either direction to overcome the combined call plus put debit, regardless of direction. Current ICLR IV rank near 52.08% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the straddle thesis on ICLR should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Healthcare name, ICLR options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to ICLR-specific events.
ICLR straddle positions are structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium); 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. ICLR positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move ICLR alongside the broader basket even when ICLR-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current ICLR chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a straddle on ICLR?
- A straddle on ICLR is the straddle strategy applied to ICLR (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium): A long straddle buys an ATM call and an ATM put at the same strike, profiting from a large move in either direction; max loss equals the combined debit when the underlying pins to the strike at expiration. With ICLR stock trading near $115.55, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed ICLR chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are ICLR straddle max profit and max loss calculated?
- Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the strike minus the combined call plus put debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached when the underlying pins to the strike). Two breakevens at strike plus debit and strike minus debit. For the ICLR straddle priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 69.00%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$2,007.44 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a ICLR straddle?
- The breakeven for the ICLR straddle priced on this page is roughly $94.90 and $135.10 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 ICLR market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 19.78%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a straddle on ICLR?
- Straddles on ICLR are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy ICLR straddles ahead of earnings, FDA decisions, or other catalysts where the realized move is expected to exceed the implied move priced into the chain.
- How does current ICLR implied volatility affect this straddle?
- ICLR ATM IV is at 69.00% with IV rank near 52.08%, which is mid-range against its 1-year history. Strategy selection depends more on directional thesis and expected move than on a strong IV signal.