Trade Idea - Risk-Free Collar on OUST

Disclaimer: The trades discussed in this blog reflect the author's personal strategies and decisions. These are not financial advice and should not be considered recommendations to buy, sell, or hold any financial instruments. The author is not a licensed financial advisor. Options trading carries significant risk, and readers should perform their own research or consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

I recently opened a low-risk position in OUST using a collar strategy that mimics a Treasury-like return profile. It's not a trade that's going to blow the doors off in terms of profit, but it serves a very specific purpose: keeping capital working with no risk of loss (which is not a bad idea in a moment in which geopolitical issues are growing in several areas of the world).

I can either earn a little more than $30 or a little more than $130. The difference is whether OUST is below $27 on the day the options expire (and I earn less), or above $28 (and I earn more).

The Trade

Here’s how I structured it:

• Buy 100 shares of OUST at $18.07 → ~$1,807
• Buy 1 July 18, 2025 $27 Put for ~$8.70 → ~$870
• Sell 1 July 18, 2025 $28 Call for ~$0.25 → ~$25–$30 credit

Total cost basis lands around $2,640 after factoring in the credit from the short call. Here is my P&L:

The stock chart looks like this:

What I’m Aiming For

If OUST finishes below $27 at expiration, I can exercise the long put gets and I walk away with $2,700. That’s a profit of around $30. If OUST finishes above $28, my shares get called away, and I walk away with $2,800, giving me a profit of around $130.

In either scenario, the outcome is predefined and positive. No surprises, no downside exposure. Notice that, most likely, I will end up with less than what the risk-free rate would be. Would I be better off investing money on Treasuries? In this specific case, yes, probably, but I find options to be, in general, more flexible than bonds, and I was curious to try one of these trades.

A Few Considerations

If you’re using margin to fund the stock leg, be mindful of the interest rate. I did this in a cash account to keep it clean. If your broker charges a high rate, the whole setup could flip from positive to negative.

These opportunities don’t show up every day, and they’re tough to spot manually. But with a good scan that filters for collars with favorable skew and minimal net cost, they pop out (and this is feasible on Option Samurai, by the way). This one was clean enough that it made sense to enter.

So while it’s not exciting, it’s the kind of trade I like to have on when I want low-maintenance yield without betting on direction. Just park the capital and let it ride.

Anyway, if you like these risk-free trades, you can check out our custom scan feature, which we really feel is a way to find trades you cannot find anywhere else. For transparency, you can find all my trades in the public trade log.