POOL Collar Strategy
POOL (Pool Corporation), in the Industrials sector, (Industrial - Distribution industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Pool Corporation distributes swimming pool supplies, equipment, and related leisure products in the United States and internationally. The company offers maintenance products, including chemicals, supplies, and pool accessories; repair and replacement parts for pool equipment, such as cleaners, filters, heaters, pumps, and lights; fiberglass pools, and hot tubs and packaged pool kits comprising walls, liners, braces, and coping for in-ground and above-ground pools; pool equipment and components for new pool construction and the remodeling of existing pools; and irrigation and related products consisting of irrigation system components, and professional lawn care equipment and supplies. It also provides building materials, such as concrete, plumbing and electrical components, functional and decorative pool surfaces, decking materials, tiles, hardscapes, and natural stones for pool installations and remodeling; and commercial products, including heaters, safety equipment, and commercial pumps and filters. In addition, the company offers other pool construction and recreational products comprising discretionary recreational and related outdoor living products, such as grills and components for outdoor kitchens. It serves swimming pool remodelers and builders; specialty retailers that sell swimming pool supplies; swimming pool repair and service businesses; irrigation construction and landscape maintenance contractors; and commercial customers that serve hotels, universities, and community recreational facilities. As of March 03, 2022, the company operated 410 sales centers in North America, Europe, and Australia.
POOL (Pool Corporation) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Industrial - Distribution, with a market capitalization of approximately $6.39B, a trailing P/E of 15.70, a beta of 1.15 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 175.01-345, average daily share volume of 863K, a public-listing history dating back to 1995, approximately 6K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how POOL stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.15 places POOL roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. POOL pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a collar on POOL?
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 POOL snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $174.47, ATM IV 40.50%, IV rank 61.11%, expected move 11.61%. The collar on POOL 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 POOL specifically: IV regime affects collar pricing on both sides; mid-range POOL IV at 40.50% typically pushes the short call premium to roughly offset the long put cost, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 11.61% (roughly $20.26 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 POOL expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on POOL should anchor to the underlying notional of $174.47 per share and to the trader's directional view on POOL stock.
POOL collar setup
The POOL 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 POOL near $174.47, the first option leg uses a $185.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed POOL 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 POOL shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $174.47 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $185.00 | $4.70 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $165.00 | $4.30 |
POOL collar risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$17,407.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $1,093.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$907.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $174.07
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 1.205
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.
POOL collar payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the collar on POOL. 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% | -$907.00 |
| $38.59 | -77.9% | -$907.00 |
| $77.16 | -55.8% | -$907.00 |
| $115.74 | -33.7% | -$907.00 |
| $154.31 | -11.6% | -$907.00 |
| $192.89 | +10.6% | +$1,093.00 |
| $231.46 | +32.7% | +$1,093.00 |
| $270.04 | +54.8% | +$1,093.00 |
| $308.61 | +76.9% | +$1,093.00 |
| $347.19 | +99.0% | +$1,093.00 |
When traders use collar on POOL
Collars on POOL hedge an existing long POOL 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.
POOL thesis for this collar
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for POOL extends from approximately $154.21 on the downside to $194.73 on the upside. A POOL collar hedges an existing long POOL 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 POOL IV rank near 61.11% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the collar thesis on POOL should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Industrials name, POOL options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to POOL-specific events.
POOL 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. POOL positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move POOL alongside the broader basket even when POOL-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current POOL chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a collar on POOL?
- A collar on POOL is the collar strategy applied to POOL (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 POOL stock trading near $174.47, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed POOL chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are POOL 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 POOL collar priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 40.50%), the computed maximum profit is $1,093.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$907.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a POOL collar?
- The breakeven for the POOL collar priced on this page is roughly $174.07 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 POOL market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 11.61%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a collar on POOL?
- Collars on POOL hedge an existing long POOL 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 POOL implied volatility affect this collar?
- POOL ATM IV is at 40.50% with IV rank near 61.11%, which is mid-range against its 1-year history. Strategy selection depends more on directional thesis and expected move than on a strong IV signal.