PandoraOptions

Strangle

A call and a put at the same expiration but different out-of-the-money strikes. Cheaper than a straddle when bought, wider breakevens; sold, it collects less premium but gives the underlying room to roam.

The strangle trades the straddle’s sensitivity for distance: buyers pay less and need a bigger move; sellers earn less and are wrong less often. Short strangles are a staple of systematic premium selling — and the textbook example of a strategy whose losses concentrate in exactly the markets where everything else also hurts.

Adding long wings to a short strangle converts it into an iron condor, exchanging some premium for a defined worst case.

← All terms · Ready to see it in context? Start with thefree curriculum.