You own a stock you believe in — but the market's been unpredictable and you want a little insurance. A collar lets you protect your position against a big drop without paying a lot for that protection. The catch? You'll cap how much you can gain on the upside. For a lot of investors, that trade-off is worth it.
Here's how it works.
The basics
A collar combines three positions:
Own shares of stock
Buy a put option at a lower strike price (your protection)
Sell a call option at a higher strike price (what pays for it)
Both options are on the same stock and expire on the same date. The put protects you if the stock falls. The call you sell brings in premium that helps offset the cost of that put — sometimes covering it entirely. Typically, both options are out of the money when you set up the trade.
The trade-off: if the stock rallies past your call strike, your upside is capped. You've essentially agreed to sell your shares at that price if the call gets exercised.
Legs of the trade: 2 options (long put at lower strike + short call at higher strike), plus the stock Sentiment: Cautiously optimistic
A real example (with fake numbers)
Let's say Jill owns 100 shares of PEAR stock, which she bought at $100 per share. She's feeling good about PEAR, but she wants some downside protection — without spending a lot to get it.
Here's what she does:
Buys 1 PEAR January 95 put for $1.60
Sells 1 PEAR January 105 call for $1.80
The call she sold brings in more than the put cost, so she actually ends up with a net credit of $0.20. Her position is protected, and she got paid a little to set it up.
The best case: maximum profit
Jill's ideal outcome is PEAR climbing to $105 by expiration — right at her call strike. That's where her stock profit maxes out. If PEAR goes higher, she won't participate in those extra gains because the call caps her upside. But she keeps the $0.20 net premium she collected, which nudges her effective sell price to $105.20.
Quiz: PEAR rises to $110 per share. What's Jill's unrealized profit (before fees and commissions)?
Answer: $520
Jill's upside is capped at the call strike of $105, plus the net premium she collected.
$105 + $0.20 = $105.20 (effective max price) $105.20 – $100 (original purchase price) = $5.20 per share $5.20 × 100 shares = $520
The worst case: maximum loss
PEAR dropped. Not great — but Jill knew this was possible, and the put was there to do its job. Below the put strike of $95, her losses stop growing. The put acts as a floor.
Question: PEAR falls to $93 per share. What's Jill's unrealized loss (before fees and commissions)?
Answer: –$480
The put kicks in at $95, limiting how far the loss can go.
Put strike ($95) – stock purchase price ($100) = –$5.00 per share Add back the net premium collected: –$5.00 + $0.20 = –$4.80 per share –$4.80 × 100 shares = –$480
The break-even
Question: What's Jill's break-even price per share?
Answer: $99.80
Because Jill collected a net credit of $0.20 when she set up the collar, her break-even is slightly below what she paid for the stock. That small cushion means PEAR doesn't need to stay exactly flat for her to come out even.
$100 – $0.20 = $99.80
If she'd paid more for the put than she collected for the call, the math would flip — her break-even would sit above her purchase price, and she'd need PEAR to rise a bit just to recover the cost of the options.
What Jill is actually hoping for
She wants PEAR to drift up to $105 by expiration. That's where her profit peaks. Below that, she still owns the stock and hasn't given anything up. Above it, the call gets exercised and her shares get called away — she misses out on any gains beyond $105, but she walked away with her maximum payout. Not a bad outcome for a "cautiously optimistic" bet.
A risk to keep on your radar: early assignment
Because Jill sold a call as part of this collar, she carries early assignment risk. The buyer of that call can exercise it early — any business day before expiration — and Jill has no say in the timing.
The most common reason someone exercises a call early is to capture a dividend. If PEAR is about to pay one and Jill's call is in the money, the call holder may exercise early to become a shareholder on record date. If that happens, Jill's shares get called away before the dividend — and she won't receive it.
A few things to know:
If assigned early on the short call, Jill will no longer hold PEAR stock. Her position is gone.
Her long put will still be open, but it's now protecting a stock position she no longer has. She'll need to decide what to do with it.
If Jill wants to avoid any of this, she can close the entire collar before expiration — buy back the short call and sell the long put — and move on.
Putting it all together
A collar is one of the most practical options strategies for long-term stock holders. You're not trying to make a killing — you're trying to sleep at night. You give up some of the upside in exchange for real downside protection, and you can often set the whole thing up for little to no cost. For investors who want to hold a stock through volatility without white-knuckling it, that's a pretty good deal.