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AlvisoOculus

Equity Comp Tax (ISO/NSO/RSU/QSBS); Concentration, Hedging and Equity Funding Optimizers

protective_put_price

Read-onlyIdempotent

Price a protective put, zero-cost collar, or put spread to hedge a stock position against a drop. Get annual hedge cost, max loss, and floor-hit probability.

Instructions

Use this when someone asks how much it costs to hedge or protect a stock position against a drop, to protect gains, get downside protection, or insure a position, or to price a protective put, a zero-cost collar, or a put spread. Closed-form pricing of a protective put, a zero-cost collar, and a put spread on a single-stock position. Use for standalone hedge pricing on a single-stock position; for concentration-vs-hedge tax-cost comparison, use concentration_analyze with a hedgeChoice. Parameter interactions: volatility omitted falls back to a sector-typical implied volatility; an explicit sigma overrides it. For collars, omitting upsideCapPct lets the tool back-solve the cap that zeros the net premium (truly zero-cost collar); supplying upsideCapPct overrides the solver and yields a non-zero net premium when the cap is wider than zero-cost. tenorYears drives the risk-free-rate lookup AND the floor-hit / cap-hit probability metrics, so changing tenor shifts every probability output even at fixed strike. expectedReturn affects only the probability metrics (real-world drift in the floor-hit / cap-hit calculations); premium math is risk-neutral and ignores it (default 0). protectionLevel sets the put strike as (1 − protectionLevel) × spot; raising it widens the protected zone but raises premium roughly linearly. spreadRiskLevel (default 0.10) sets the put spread's short strike by targeting the probability the stock ends below it; it affects only the putSpread block. The put spread finances the same floor with a short put at a lower strike (not a short call), so it is cheaper than the bare put and needs no shares to sell calls against, which makes it the one structure of the three that works on unexercised employee options; the trade-off is that protection stops at the short strike and losses resume below it. Closed-form, deterministic, offline: sector volatility table and risk-free-rate curve compiled in. Reports annualized hedge cost as a percentage of position value, maximum loss with the hedge in place, upside-participation cap (collar only, since the short call offsets the long put premium), and probability of hitting the protection floor over the tenor. Returns a top-level object with keys: inputs (echoed canonical input), riskFreeRate (used in option pricing), realWorldDrift (from expectedReturn), barePut (strike, premium, annualCost, annualCostPct, maxLoss, badYearPrice, badYearDropPct, coveredLossAtBadYear, premiumToCoveredRatio, expectedProfit, premiumToExpectedProfitRatio), collar (putStrike, callStrike, netPremium, annualCost, annualCostPct, maxLoss, upsideCap, upsideCapPct, isZeroCost, capProbability), putSpread (available, unavailableReason, longStrike, longPremium, shortStrike, shortPremium, shortSigma, netPremium, annualCost, annualCostPct, maxLossInBand, bandWidth, shortStrikeDropPct, breachProbability, riskLevel, savingsPct, coveredLossAtBadYear), payoffTable, payoffRange, and recommended (the cleanest of collar / bare put / put spread given the inputs, or none). The barePut, collar, and putSpread blocks are always returned regardless of caller preference. When putSpread.available is false, putSpread.unavailableReason explains why that structure could not be priced. Example call: {positionValue: 400000, sector: "tech_software", protectionLevel: 0.10, tenorYears: 1, spreadRiskLevel: 0.10}. Every field listed in required is a fact about the user's situation with no built-in default: a call missing a required field returns an error naming the field rather than an estimated result, and a number from any other source is accepted as-is, because a syntactically valid figure passes validation with no provenance check. The math runs inside the tool with no randomness and no model inference. Results from multiple OptionsAhoy tools in one analysis are independent single-position calculations; integrated multi-year, multi-position optimization is available in the OptionsAhoy beta at optionsahoy.com/beta?src=mcp_multi.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
sectorYesSector tag. Drives the default volatility when no explicit `volatility` is supplied (a sector-typical implied volatility).
tickerNoOptional public-stock symbol (e.g. "NVDA"). When set without an explicit `volatility`, the tool substitutes the ticker's cached implied vol. Unknown tickers fall through to the sector default. Echoed to `tickerLabel` in the response.
tenorYearsYesOption tenor in years. 1 = 12-month; 0.25 = ~90-day. The user's choice, not a modelling detail, and it changes the answer: use the value they gave, and if they gave none, ask for it rather than assuming one.
volatilityNoAnnualized implied volatility (sigma) of the stock. Resolution order: (1) explicit `volatility` if passed; (2) cached implied vol if `ticker` is covered; (3) sector-typical IV as last fallback. An explicit value must come from the user; otherwise set a covered `ticker`, or omit and let the sector default apply.
tickerLabelNoOptional display string echoed back in the result. Not used in pricing.
positionValueYesMarket value of the underlying single-stock position, USD. Premium and max-loss scale linearly with this. Must come from the user.
expectedReturnNoAnnual expected stock return (decimal). Drives the real-world drift in the cap-hit / floor-hit probability metrics. Does not affect premium math. Default 0.
protectionLevelYesPut strike as (1 − this fraction) × spot. 0.10 = 10% OTM put. Range 0.05..0.50. The user's choice, not a modelling detail, and it changes the answer: use the value they gave, and if they gave none, ask for it rather than assuming one.
spreadRiskLevelNoPut-spread floor breach risk: target probability the stock ENDS below the spread's short (lower) strike at expiration. Presets 0.20 / 0.10 / 0.05 / 0.01 ("1 in 5 / 10 / 20 / 100"); off-preset values snap to the nearest. A lower value pushes the short strike deeper, widening the protected band and raising the net premium toward the bare put. Only affects the `putSpread` block. Default 0.10.

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema
NameRequiredDescriptionDefault
collarYesPut financed by a short call: lower or zero net premium in exchange for capped upside.
inputsYesEcho of the resolved inputs actually priced: positionValue, sector, volatility (the sigma used after ticker/sector resolution), protectionLevel, tenorYears, plus expectedReturn, spreadRiskLevel, and tickerLabel when supplied.
barePutYesBare protective put: pay premium for a hard floor.
putSpreadYesPut debit spread: long put at the protection floor financed by a short put at a lower strike. Cheaper than the bare put and needs no short call (so it works on unexercised employee options a collar cannot cover), but protection stops at the short strike and losses resume below it. The short strike is solved so the real-world probability the stock ENDS below it equals spreadRiskLevel.
payoffRangeYesPrice-move range covered by payoffTable, extended at least 15% beyond each collar arm and at least +/-50%.
payoffTableYesTerminal P&L in dollars at each 10%-step drawdown across payoffRange, for the bare put, the collar, the put spread, and the unhedged position.
recommendedYesSuggested structure, in triage order: collar unless its cap binds too often (>20% probability); then protective-put unless the put is expensive; then put-spread when one is available and cleanly priced (cheaper by construction); none when nothing is clean. The recommended structure is the one whose card carries no warning.
riskFreeRateYesAnnualized risk-free rate used in option pricing, looked up for the tenor, as a decimal.
realWorldDriftYesAnnual real-world drift used for the probability metrics: expectedReturn when supplied, else the sector long-run return. Does not affect premium math.
Behavior5/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

Annotations already mark readOnlyHint=true and destructiveHint=false, but the description adds substantial behavioral context: deterministic/offline/no-randomness math, closed-form nature, volatility fallback resolution, zero-cost collar back-solving behavior, and how `expectedReturn` only affects probability metrics. No contradiction with annotations.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness4/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

The description is long but highly structured: starts with use case, then purpose, parameter interactions, return-object layout, example call, and error behavior. Almost every sentence adds value, though the final marketing sentence about the OptionsAhoy beta is extraneous and could be trimmed. It is front-loaded and logically ordered.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness5/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

Given the tool's complexity (9 parameters, 3 structures, extensive output), the description covers all necessary context: detailed return blocks for `barePut`, `collar`, `putSpread`, `unavailableReason` behavior, `payoffTable`, `recommended`, plus an example call and required-field error handling. The presence of an output schema is complemented by this rich prose, making it complete.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters5/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema coverage is 100%, so baseline is 3, but the description adds critical meaning beyond the schema: it explains the resolution order for `volatility`, the formula for `protectionLevel` as `(1 − protectionLevel) × spot`, the probability-based effect of `spreadRiskLevel`, and the global impact of `tenorYears` on risk-free-rate and probability outputs. It also clarifies required fields must come from the user and that errors name the missing field.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

The description opens with explicit use cases ('Use this when someone asks how much it costs to hedge...') and a clear definition: 'Closed-form pricing of a protective put, a zero-cost collar, and a put spread on a single-stock position.' It differentiates from siblings by explicitly pointing to `concentration_analyze` for tax-cost comparisons, making the tool's scope unambiguous.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines5/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

Provides explicit when-to-use guidance ('Use this when...'), scope ('standalone hedge pricing on a single-stock position'), and an explicit alternative ('for concentration-vs-hedge tax-cost comparison, use concentration_analyze'). It also details parameter interactions and fallback behavior (e.g., `volatility` resolution order) that inform when to set or omit parameters.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

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