ULTA Strangle Strategy
ULTA (Ulta Beauty, Inc.), in the Consumer Cyclical sector, (Specialty Retail industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Ulta Beauty, Inc. operates as a retailer of beauty products in the United States. The company's stores offer cosmetics, fragrances, skincare and haircare products, bath and body products, and salon styling tools; professional hair products; salon services, including hair, skin, makeup, and brow services; and nail services. It also provides its private label products, such as the Ulta Beauty Collection branded cosmetics, skincare, and bath products, as well as Ulta Beauty branded products; and the Ulta Beauty branded gifts. As of March 10, 2022, the company operated 1,308 retail stores across 50 states. It also distributes its products through its website ulta.com; and mobile applications. The company was formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. and changed its name to Ulta Beauty, Inc. in January 2017.
ULTA (Ulta Beauty, Inc.) trades in the Consumer Cyclical sector, specifically Specialty Retail, with a market capitalization of approximately $21.52B, a trailing P/E of 19.13, a beta of 0.89 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 402.5-714.97, average daily share volume of 715K, a public-listing history dating back to 2007, approximately 20K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how ULTA stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.89 places ULTA roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline.
What is a strangle on ULTA?
A long strangle buys an OTM call and an OTM put at offset strikes, cheaper than a straddle but requiring a larger underlying move to profit since both wings start out-of-the-money.
Current ULTA snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $493.77, ATM IV 51.36%, IV rank 99.54%, expected move 14.72%. The strangle on ULTA 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 28-day expiry.
Why this strangle structure on ULTA specifically: ULTA IV at 51.36% is rich versus its 1-year range, which makes a premium-buying ULTA strangle relatively expensive in absolute-cost terms, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 14.72% (roughly $72.71 on the underlying). The 28-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated ULTA expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on ULTA should anchor to the underlying notional of $493.77 per share and to the trader's directional view on ULTA stock.
ULTA strangle setup
The ULTA strangle below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With ULTA near $493.77, the first option leg uses a $520.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed ULTA chain at a 28-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 ULTA shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $520.00 | $18.65 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $470.00 | $17.60 |
ULTA strangle risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$3,625.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$3,625.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $433.75, $556.25
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- Unbounded
Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the put strike minus the combined debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached anywhere between the two OTM strikes). Two breakevens at call-strike plus debit and put-strike minus debit.
ULTA strangle payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the strangle on ULTA. 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% | +$43,374.00 |
| $109.18 | -77.9% | +$32,456.58 |
| $218.36 | -55.8% | +$21,539.17 |
| $327.53 | -33.7% | +$10,621.75 |
| $436.71 | -11.6% | -$295.67 |
| $545.88 | +10.6% | -$1,036.91 |
| $655.06 | +32.7% | +$9,880.50 |
| $764.23 | +54.8% | +$20,797.92 |
| $873.40 | +76.9% | +$31,715.34 |
| $982.58 | +99.0% | +$42,632.75 |
When traders use strangle on ULTA
Strangles on ULTA are the cheaper cousin of the straddle - traders use them when they want a large directional move but are willing to give up the inner-strike sensitivity in exchange for a lower up-front debit on the ULTA chain.
ULTA thesis for this strangle
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for ULTA extends from approximately $421.06 on the downside to $566.48 on the upside. A ULTA long strangle is the OTM cousin of the straddle: lower up-front cost but the underlying has to travel further past either OTM strike before the position turns profitable at expiration. Current ULTA IV rank near 99.54% sits in the upper third of its 1-year distribution, which historically reverts; this raises the bar for premium-buying structures and lowers it for premium-selling structures on ULTA at 51.36%. As a Consumer Cyclical name, ULTA options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to ULTA-specific events.
ULTA strangle positions are structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium, OTM); 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. ULTA positions also carry Consumer Cyclical sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move ULTA alongside the broader basket even when ULTA-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current ULTA chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a strangle on ULTA?
- A strangle on ULTA is the strangle strategy applied to ULTA (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium, OTM): A long strangle buys an OTM call and an OTM put at offset strikes, cheaper than a straddle but requiring a larger underlying move to profit since both wings start out-of-the-money. With ULTA stock trading near $493.77, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed ULTA chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are ULTA strangle max profit and max loss calculated?
- Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the put strike minus the combined debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached anywhere between the two OTM strikes). Two breakevens at call-strike plus debit and put-strike minus debit. For the ULTA strangle priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 51.36%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$3,625.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a ULTA strangle?
- The breakeven for the ULTA strangle priced on this page is roughly $433.75 and $556.25 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 ULTA market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 14.72%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a strangle on ULTA?
- Strangles on ULTA are the cheaper cousin of the straddle - traders use them when they want a large directional move but are willing to give up the inner-strike sensitivity in exchange for a lower up-front debit on the ULTA chain.
- How does current ULTA implied volatility affect this strangle?
- ULTA ATM IV is at 51.36% with IV rank near 99.54%, which is elevated relative to its 1-year range. Premium-selling structures (covered call, cash-secured put, iron condor) generally look more attractive when IV rank is high; premium-buying structures (long call, long put, debit spreads) are more expensive in that regime.