LOCO Straddle Strategy
LOCO (El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc.), in the Consumer Cyclical sector, (Restaurants industry), listed on NASDAQ.
El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, El Pollo Loco, Inc., develops, franchises, licenses, and operates quick-service restaurants under the El Pollo Loco name. As of May 04, 2022, the company operated 480 restaurants comprising 189 company-operated and 291 franchised restaurants located in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Utah, and Louisiana. It also licenses one restaurant in the Philippines. The company was formerly known as Chicken Acquisition Corp. and changed its name to El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. in April 2014. El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California.
LOCO (El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc.) trades in the Consumer Cyclical sector, specifically Restaurants, with a market capitalization of approximately $400.2M, a trailing P/E of 13.25, a beta of 0.70 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 8.87-15.9, average daily share volume of 323K, a public-listing history dating back to 2014, approximately 4K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how LOCO stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.70 indicates LOCO has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure.
What is a straddle on LOCO?
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 LOCO snapshot
As of May 14, 2026, spot at $13.39, ATM IV 38.50%, IV rank 10.45%, expected move 11.04%. The straddle on LOCO 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 35-day expiry.
Why this straddle structure on LOCO specifically: LOCO IV at 38.50% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a LOCO straddle, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 11.04% (roughly $1.48 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 LOCO expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on LOCO should anchor to the underlying notional of $13.39 per share and to the trader's directional view on LOCO stock.
LOCO straddle setup
The LOCO 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 LOCO near $13.39, the first option leg uses a $13.39 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed LOCO 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 LOCO shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $13.39 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Put | $13.39 | N/A |
LOCO straddle risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- N/A
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Breakeven(s)
- None on modeled curve
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- N/A
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.
LOCO straddle payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the straddle on LOCO. 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.
When traders use straddle on LOCO
Straddles on LOCO are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy LOCO straddles ahead of earnings, FDA decisions, or other catalysts where the realized move is expected to exceed the implied move priced into the chain.
LOCO thesis for this straddle
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for LOCO extends from approximately $11.91 on the downside to $14.87 on the upside. A LOCO 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 LOCO IV rank near 10.45% 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 LOCO at 38.50%. As a Consumer Cyclical name, LOCO options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to LOCO-specific events.
LOCO 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. LOCO positions also carry Consumer Cyclical sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move LOCO alongside the broader basket even when LOCO-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current LOCO chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a straddle on LOCO?
- A straddle on LOCO is the straddle strategy applied to LOCO (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 LOCO stock trading near $13.39, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed LOCO chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are LOCO 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 LOCO straddle priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 38.50%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is unbounded per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a LOCO straddle?
- The breakeven for the LOCO straddle priced on this page is no defined breakeven on the modeled curve 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 LOCO market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 11.04%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a straddle on LOCO?
- Straddles on LOCO are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy LOCO 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 LOCO implied volatility affect this straddle?
- LOCO ATM IV is at 38.50% with IV rank near 10.45%, 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.