PLMR Straddle Strategy
PLMR (Palomar Holdings, Inc.), in the Financial Services sector, (Insurance - Property & Casualty industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Palomar Holdings, Inc., an insurance holding company, provides specialty property insurance to residential and commercial customers. The company offers personal and commercial specialty property insurance products, including residential and commercial earthquake, commercial all risk, specialty homeowners, inland marine, Hawaii hurricane, and residential flood, as well as other products, such as assumed reinsurance, commercial flood, real estate error and omission, and real estate investor products. It markets and distributes its products through retail agents, wholesale brokers, program administrators, and carrier partnerships. The company was formerly known as GC Palomar Holdings. Palomar Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in La Jolla, California.
PLMR (Palomar Holdings, Inc.) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Insurance - Property & Casualty, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.87B, a trailing P/E of 14.58, a beta of 0.49 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 107.51-175.85, average daily share volume of 261K, a public-listing history dating back to 2019, approximately 253 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how PLMR stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.49 indicates PLMR 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 PLMR?
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 PLMR snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $110.63, ATM IV 36.20%, IV rank 29.64%, expected move 10.38%. The straddle on PLMR 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 PLMR specifically: PLMR IV at 36.20% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a PLMR straddle, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 10.38% (roughly $11.48 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 PLMR expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on PLMR should anchor to the underlying notional of $110.63 per share and to the trader's directional view on PLMR stock.
PLMR straddle setup
The PLMR 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 PLMR near $110.63, the first option leg uses a $110.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed PLMR 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 PLMR shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $110.00 | $5.35 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $110.00 | $4.23 |
PLMR straddle risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$957.50
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$949.59
- Breakeven(s)
- $100.43, $119.58
- 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.
PLMR straddle payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the straddle on PLMR. 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% | +$10,041.50 |
| $24.47 | -77.9% | +$7,595.52 |
| $48.93 | -55.8% | +$5,149.54 |
| $73.39 | -33.7% | +$2,703.56 |
| $97.85 | -11.6% | +$257.58 |
| $122.31 | +10.6% | +$273.40 |
| $146.77 | +32.7% | +$2,719.38 |
| $171.23 | +54.8% | +$5,165.36 |
| $195.69 | +76.9% | +$7,611.34 |
| $220.15 | +99.0% | +$10,057.32 |
When traders use straddle on PLMR
Straddles on PLMR are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy PLMR straddles ahead of earnings, FDA decisions, or other catalysts where the realized move is expected to exceed the implied move priced into the chain.
PLMR thesis for this straddle
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for PLMR extends from approximately $99.15 on the downside to $122.11 on the upside. A PLMR 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 PLMR IV rank near 29.64% 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 PLMR at 36.20%. As a Financial Services name, PLMR options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to PLMR-specific events.
PLMR 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. PLMR positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move PLMR alongside the broader basket even when PLMR-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current PLMR chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a straddle on PLMR?
- A straddle on PLMR is the straddle strategy applied to PLMR (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 PLMR stock trading near $110.63, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed PLMR chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are PLMR 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 PLMR straddle priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 36.20%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$949.59 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a PLMR straddle?
- The breakeven for the PLMR straddle priced on this page is roughly $100.43 and $119.58 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 PLMR market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 10.38%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a straddle on PLMR?
- Straddles on PLMR are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy PLMR 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 PLMR implied volatility affect this straddle?
- PLMR ATM IV is at 36.20% with IV rank near 29.64%, 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.