NHI Collar Strategy
NHI (National Health Investors, Inc.), in the Real Estate sector, (REIT - Healthcare Facilities industry), listed on NYSE.
Established in 1991, National Health Investors, Inc. (NYSE: NHI) operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT) primarily focused on providing capital for senior living and medical real estate assets. The company facilitates this through diverse financing options, including sale-leaseback arrangements, joint ventures, and various debt instruments such as mortgage and mezzanine loans, targeting properties that cater to both essential care needs and discretionary services. NHI's broad holdings feature independent living, assisted living, and memory care facilities, as well as entrance-fee retirement communities, skilled nursing homes, medical office complexes, and specialized hospitals.
NHI (National Health Investors, Inc.) trades in the Real Estate sector, specifically REIT - Healthcare Facilities, with a market capitalization of approximately $3.54B, a trailing P/E of 21.18, a beta of 0.56 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 67.94-91.38, average daily share volume of 544K, a public-listing history dating back to 1991, approximately 32 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how NHI stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.56 indicates NHI has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. NHI pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a collar on NHI?
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.
NHI snapshot
As of August 14, 2026, spot at $73.59, ATM IV 23.10%, IV rank 4.70%, expected move 6.62%. The collar on NHI below is built from the 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 collar structure on NHI specifically: IV regime affects collar pricing on both sides; compressed NHI IV at 23.10% typically pushes the short call premium to roughly offset the long put cost, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 6.62% (roughly $4.87 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 NHI expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on NHI should anchor to the underlying notional of $73.59 per share and to the trader's directional view on NHI stock.
NHI collar setup
The NHI 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 NHI at $73.59 on that close, the first option leg uses a $77.27 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed NHI 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 NHI shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $73.59 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $77.27 | N/A |
| Buy 1 | Put | $69.91 | N/A |
NHI 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.
NHI collar payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the collar on NHI. 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 NHI
Collars on NHI hedge an existing long NHI 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.
NHI thesis for this collar
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for NHI extends from approximately $68.72 on the downside to $78.46 on the upside. A NHI collar hedges an existing long NHI 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 NHI IV rank near 4.70% 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 NHI at 23.10%. As a Real Estate name, NHI options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to NHI-specific events.
NHI 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. NHI positions also carry Real Estate sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move NHI alongside the broader basket even when NHI-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current NHI chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a collar on NHI?
- A collar on NHI is the collar strategy applied to NHI (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 NHI stock at $73.59 on the most recent close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed NHI chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
- How are NHI 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 NHI collar priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 23.10%), 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 NHI collar?
- The breakeven for the NHI collar priced on this page is no defined breakeven on the modeled curve at expiration, derived from the 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 NHI market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 6.62%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a collar on NHI?
- Collars on NHI hedge an existing long NHI 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 NHI implied volatility affect this collar?
- NHI ATM IV is at 23.10% with IV rank near 4.70%, 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.