LOPE Bear Put Spread Strategy
LOPE (Grand Canyon Education, Inc.), in the Consumer Defensive sector, (Education & Training Services industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Grand Canyon Education, Inc. provides education services to colleges and universities in the United States. The company's technology services include learning management system, internal administration, infrastructure, and support services; academic services comprises program and curriculum, faculty and related training and development, class scheduling, and skills and simulation lab sites; and counseling services and support include admission, financial aid, and field experience and other counseling services. It also offers marketing and communication services, such as lead acquisition, digital communications strategy, brand identity, market research, media planning and strategy, video, and business intelligence and data science; and back-office services comprising finance and accounting, human resources, audit, and procurement services. The company, through its subsidiary, Orbis Education Services, LLC, supports healthcare education programs for 27 universities. Grand Canyon Education, Inc. was founded in 1949 and is based in Phoenix, Arizona.
LOPE (Grand Canyon Education, Inc.) trades in the Consumer Defensive sector, specifically Education & Training Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $4.26B, a trailing P/E of 19.55, a beta of 0.62 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 149.37-223.04, average daily share volume of 297K, a public-listing history dating back to 2008, approximately 4K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how LOPE stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.62 indicates LOPE 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 bear put spread on LOPE?
A bear put spread buys an at-the-money put and sells an out-of-the-money put at a lower strike for defined risk and defined reward bounded by the strike width.
Current LOPE snapshot
As of May 14, 2026, spot at $161.01, ATM IV 27.40%, IV rank 18.67%, expected move 7.86%. The bear put spread on LOPE 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 bear put spread structure on LOPE specifically: LOPE IV at 27.40% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a LOPE bear put spread, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 7.86% (roughly $12.65 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 LOPE expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on LOPE should anchor to the underlying notional of $161.01 per share and to the trader's directional view on LOPE stock.
LOPE bear put spread setup
The LOPE bear put spread below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With LOPE near $161.01, the first option leg uses a $160.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed LOPE 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 LOPE shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Put | $160.00 | $6.10 |
| Sell 1 | Put | $155.00 | $3.90 |
LOPE bear put spread risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$220.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $280.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$220.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $157.80
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 1.273
Max profit equals strike width minus net debit times 100; max loss equals net debit times 100. Breakeven is long-put strike minus net debit.
LOPE bear put spread payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the bear put spread on LOPE. 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% | +$280.00 |
| $35.61 | -77.9% | +$280.00 |
| $71.21 | -55.8% | +$280.00 |
| $106.81 | -33.7% | +$280.00 |
| $142.41 | -11.6% | +$280.00 |
| $178.01 | +10.6% | -$220.00 |
| $213.60 | +32.7% | -$220.00 |
| $249.20 | +54.8% | -$220.00 |
| $284.80 | +76.9% | -$220.00 |
| $320.40 | +99.0% | -$220.00 |
When traders use bear put spread on LOPE
Bear put spreads on LOPE reduce the cost of a bearish LOPE stock position by selling a lower-strike put; suited to moderate-decline theses where price reaches but does not vastly exceed the short strike.
LOPE thesis for this bear put spread
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for LOPE extends from approximately $148.36 on the downside to $173.66 on the upside. A LOPE bear put spread caps both the risk and the reward of a bearish position; relative to an outright long put on LOPE, the spread reduces the cost basis but limits the maximum profit to the strike width minus net debit. Current LOPE IV rank near 18.67% 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 LOPE at 27.40%. As a Consumer Defensive name, LOPE options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to LOPE-specific events.
LOPE bear put spread positions are structurally moderately 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. LOPE positions also carry Consumer Defensive sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move LOPE alongside the broader basket even when LOPE-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a bear put spread on LOPE 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 LOPE chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a bear put spread on LOPE?
- A bear put spread on LOPE is the bear put spread strategy applied to LOPE (stock). The strategy is structurally moderately bearish: A bear put spread buys an at-the-money put and sells an out-of-the-money put at a lower strike for defined risk and defined reward bounded by the strike width. With LOPE stock trading near $161.01, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed LOPE chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are LOPE bear put spread max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals strike width minus net debit times 100; max loss equals net debit times 100. Breakeven is long-put strike minus net debit. For the LOPE bear put spread priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 27.40%), the computed maximum profit is $280.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$220.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a LOPE bear put spread?
- The breakeven for the LOPE bear put spread priced on this page is roughly $157.80 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 LOPE market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 7.86%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a bear put spread on LOPE?
- Bear put spreads on LOPE reduce the cost of a bearish LOPE stock position by selling a lower-strike put; suited to moderate-decline theses where price reaches but does not vastly exceed the short strike.
- How does current LOPE implied volatility affect this bear put spread?
- LOPE ATM IV is at 27.40% with IV rank near 18.67%, 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.