QSR Bear Put Spread Strategy
QSR (Restaurant Brands International Inc.), in the Consumer Cyclical sector, (Restaurants industry), listed on NYSE.
Restaurant Brands International Inc. operates as quick service restaurant company in Canada and internationally. It operates through four segments: Tim Hortons (TH), Burger King (BK), Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen (PLK), and Firehouse Subs (FHS). The company owns and franchises TH chain of donut/coffee/tea restaurants that offer blend coffee, tea, and espresso-based hot and cold specialty drinks; and fresh baked goods, including donuts, Timbits, bagels, muffins, cookies and pastries, grilled paninis, classic sandwiches, wraps, soups, and others. It is also involved in owning and franchising BK, a fast food hamburger restaurant chain, which offers flame-grilled hamburgers, chicken and other specialty sandwiches, french fries, soft drinks, and other food items; and PLK quick service restaurants that provide Louisiana style fried chicken, chicken tenders, fried shrimp and other seafood, red beans and rice, and other regional items. In addition, the company owns and franchises FHS restaurants quick service restaurants that offer subs, soft drinks, and local specialties. As of February 15, 2022, the company had approximately 29,000 restaurants in 100 countries under the Tim Hortons, Burger King, Popeyes, And Firehouse Subs brands.
QSR (Restaurant Brands International Inc.) trades in the Consumer Cyclical sector, specifically Restaurants, with a market capitalization of approximately $26.49B, a trailing P/E of 27.77, a beta of 0.55 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 61.33-81.96, average daily share volume of 4.1M, a public-listing history dating back to 2014, approximately 38K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how QSR stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.55 indicates QSR has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. QSR pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a bear put spread on QSR?
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 QSR snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $76.08, ATM IV 23.10%, IV rank 29.35%, expected move 6.62%. The bear put spread on QSR 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 QSR specifically: QSR IV at 23.10% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a QSR bear put spread, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 6.62% (roughly $5.04 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 QSR expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on QSR should anchor to the underlying notional of $76.08 per share and to the trader's directional view on QSR stock.
QSR bear put spread setup
The QSR 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 QSR near $76.08, the first option leg uses a $75.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed QSR 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 QSR shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Put | $75.00 | $1.55 |
| Sell 1 | Put | $72.50 | $0.83 |
QSR bear put spread risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$72.50
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $177.50
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$72.50
- Breakeven(s)
- $74.28
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 2.448
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.
QSR bear put spread payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the bear put spread on QSR. 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% | +$177.50 |
| $16.83 | -77.9% | +$177.50 |
| $33.65 | -55.8% | +$177.50 |
| $50.47 | -33.7% | +$177.50 |
| $67.29 | -11.6% | +$177.50 |
| $84.11 | +10.6% | -$72.50 |
| $100.93 | +32.7% | -$72.50 |
| $117.75 | +54.8% | -$72.50 |
| $134.57 | +76.9% | -$72.50 |
| $151.40 | +99.0% | -$72.50 |
When traders use bear put spread on QSR
Bear put spreads on QSR reduce the cost of a bearish QSR stock position by selling a lower-strike put; suited to moderate-decline theses where price reaches but does not vastly exceed the short strike.
QSR thesis for this bear put spread
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for QSR extends from approximately $71.04 on the downside to $81.12 on the upside. A QSR bear put spread caps both the risk and the reward of a bearish position; relative to an outright long put on QSR, the spread reduces the cost basis but limits the maximum profit to the strike width minus net debit. Current QSR IV rank near 29.35% 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 QSR at 23.10%. As a Consumer Cyclical name, QSR options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to QSR-specific events.
QSR 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. QSR positions also carry Consumer Cyclical sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move QSR alongside the broader basket even when QSR-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Long-premium structures like a bear put spread on QSR 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 QSR chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a bear put spread on QSR?
- A bear put spread on QSR is the bear put spread strategy applied to QSR (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 QSR stock trading near $76.08, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed QSR chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are QSR 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 QSR bear put spread priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 23.10%), the computed maximum profit is $177.50 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$72.50 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a QSR bear put spread?
- The breakeven for the QSR bear put spread priced on this page is roughly $74.28 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 QSR market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move 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 bear put spread on QSR?
- Bear put spreads on QSR reduce the cost of a bearish QSR 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 QSR implied volatility affect this bear put spread?
- QSR ATM IV is at 23.10% with IV rank near 29.35%, 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.