MCHX Collar Strategy
MCHX (Marchex, Inc.), in the Communication Services sector, (Advertising Agencies industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Marchex, Inc. operates as an analytics and solutions company that helps businesses connect, drive, measure, and convert callers into customers in the United States and Canada. Its products include Marchex Call Analytics, an analytics platform for enterprises, which depend on inbound phone calls to drive sales, appointments, and reservations; Marchex Call Analytics, Conversation Edition that enable actionable insights for enterprise, mid-sized, and small businesses; Text Analytics and Communications, a solution for intelligent mobile messaging, which enables sales, marketing, and operations teams in businesses to engage in two-way communications with field staff, prospects, and customers through text/SMS messages; Call Monitoring for call recording; and Marchex Marketing Edge, an analytics solution for marketers in enterprise, mid-sized and small businesses that depend on inbound phone calls to drive sales, appointments and reservations. The company's Marchex Sales Engagement products comprise Marchex Engage, which combines Marchex artificial intelligence and machine learning with call monitoring and scoring services; Marchex Spotlight, a product for corporate and regional managers; Marchex Engage for Automotive; and Marchex Platform Services that allows businesses to add Marchex conversation intelligence to their existing workflows and enabling them to decode what happens in their conversations with customers. Marchex, Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
MCHX (Marchex, Inc.) trades in the Communication Services sector, specifically Advertising Agencies, with a market capitalization of approximately $70.9M, a beta of 1.96 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 1.32-2.31, average daily share volume of 14K, a public-listing history dating back to 2004, approximately 163 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how MCHX stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.96 indicates MCHX has historically moved more than the broader market, amplifying both the directional payoff and the realized volatility relative to an index-equivalent position.
What is a collar on MCHX?
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.
Current MCHX snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $1.65, ATM IV 31.20%, IV rank 2.97%, expected move 8.94%. The collar on MCHX 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 collar structure on MCHX specifically: IV regime affects collar pricing on both sides; compressed MCHX IV at 31.20% typically pushes the short call premium to roughly offset the long put cost, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 8.94% (roughly $0.15 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 MCHX expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on MCHX should anchor to the underlying notional of $1.65 per share and to the trader's directional view on MCHX stock.
MCHX collar setup
The MCHX collar below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With MCHX near $1.65, the first option leg uses a $1.73 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed MCHX 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 MCHX shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $1.65 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $1.73 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Put | $1.57 | N/A |
MCHX collar 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
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.
MCHX collar payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the collar on MCHX. 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 collar on MCHX
Collars on MCHX hedge an existing long MCHX 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.
MCHX thesis for this collar
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for MCHX extends from approximately $1.50 on the downside to $1.80 on the upside. A MCHX collar hedges an existing long MCHX 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 MCHX IV rank near 2.97% 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 MCHX at 31.20%. As a Communication Services name, MCHX options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to MCHX-specific events.
MCHX 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. MCHX positions also carry Communication Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move MCHX alongside the broader basket even when MCHX-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current MCHX chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a collar on MCHX?
- A collar on MCHX is the collar strategy applied to MCHX (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 MCHX stock trading near $1.65, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed MCHX chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are MCHX 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 MCHX collar priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 31.20%), 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 MCHX collar?
- The breakeven for the MCHX collar 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 MCHX market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 8.94%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a collar on MCHX?
- Collars on MCHX hedge an existing long MCHX 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 MCHX implied volatility affect this collar?
- MCHX ATM IV is at 31.20% with IV rank near 2.97%, 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.