Neutral2 legsdebitneutral

Buy a call and a put at the same strike. A bet on movement without a direction — and the most expensive way in the menu to make it.

Buy the call and the put at the same strike, same expiry. You profit if the stock moves far enough in either direction; you lose if it sits still.

The cost is both premiums, and at the money both are expensive — this is the priciest structure in the menu to establish, and the debit is what defines how far the stock must travel.

As a long straddle it is a long-volatility position: it gains when implied volatility rises, independent of the stock moving at all.

Priced off the guide's shared chain, on a $50 stock. Every figure beneath the diagram is computed from these legs by the same engine the Strategy Builder uses.

A V. The worst outcome is the stock finishing exactly at the strike, where both options expire worthless and the entire debit is lost.

Two break-evens, at the strike plus and minus the total debit. On the example that is $44.60 and $55.40 — the stock has to move more than 10% in either direction to make anything.

Profit is unbounded above and effectively so below.

It suits an expectation of a large move with no view on direction — the classic setting being a binary event whose outcome is unknown but whose magnitude is expected to be large.

The catch is that everyone can see the event coming, so implied volatility is already elevated and the debit already reflects it. Buying a straddle into a known event means paying for the move in advance.

This is the structure that makes IV crush concrete: after the event, implied volatility collapses, and a long straddle can lose money on the volatility repricing even when the stock moved in a helpful direction.

Like everything in this guide, these are descriptions of structures and conditions — context for your own decisions, not instructions to trade.