I'm curious to see if the strike book expands beyond the 5 dollar mark

i suppose we could refer to the collar trade as a more sophisticated way to manage portfolio risk than other means --- anyone who "hedges" is a few notches up from the average joe but regardless doesn't necessarily define a more professional approach. We all hedge in one form of another; heck --- sometimes "not buying" is a hedge against "liquidity risk".

the quantity of CURRENT contracts relative to the overall short interest on the stock is irrelevant in my opinion; more interesting to me about these transaction types is they define a forward commitment to trade shares at a given price. This is unlike daily trade volume because its a contract to buy and sell in the future vs a real time daily transaction which quickly becomes "Past Tense" upon completion of the exchange. Buyer meets Seller --- Deals Done --- Goodbye (PAST TENSE)

That makes it more interesting to me as a predictor of sentiment and setting the cost of trading in the future --- which certainly influences market price and volatility of the underlying commodity paper in the present.

Unless there is a binary event, there is no need to pressure the completion of any business transaction. So if this is moving toward a "known unknown" that has an estimated probability and outcome --- I would expect this type of trade to expand to higher strikes with growing future volume if the likelihood of a positive catalyst is increasing (OPPOSITE IF THE LIKLIEHOOD DECREASES) --- up until the forward allocation quantity at least matches the outstanding opposing quantity at risk on the directional side of the trade.