The Strategy Behind a SpreadWise Loan
A box spread is a structured options strategy that acts like a synthetic loan — designed to deliver a fixed payoff at a future date, with little to no exposure to market movements. It combines four S&P 500 index options (two calls and two puts at different strike prices) in a way that mathematically cancels out the risk of the underlying asset. What you’re left with is essentially a zero-coupon bond built from standardized exchange-traded contracts. Because the trade is fully collateralized and cleared by the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), there’s virtually no counterparty risk. When you take the short side of a box spread (i.e., you “sell” the structure), you receive an upfront cash inflow — similar to a loan — and you repay a fixed amount at maturity, typically 6–12 months out. No credit checks, no asset transfers — just precision-engineered liquidity backed by one of the most trusted clearinghouses in finance.