About IronWoods
We treat protection as an asset class, not an afterthought.
IronWoods is a fintech firm focused on equity investing with a specialisation in tail-risk hedging — building portfolios of options and individual stocks that are structurally designed to hold their ground, or gain, when the broader market falls hard.
What is tail-risk hedging?
Every return distribution has "tails" — the rare, extreme outcomes at either edge of the curve. A tail-risk hedge is a position sized and structured specifically to profit from the left tail: sharp, sudden market drawdowns of the kind that show up every several years, but which most portfolios are simply unprepared for.
In practice, this usually means buying deep out-of-the-money put options, volatility instruments, or a basket of individual equities whose businesses become more valuable in stress (defensive balance sheets, negative correlation to the broader index, or convex operating leverage). Held on their own, these positions can look like a persistent, small loss in ordinary years — the "cost of insurance." Held systematically and sized correctly, that small drag is more than offset by the payoff during the drawdown itself, when the position's value can rise by a large multiple exactly as the rest of a portfolio is falling.
The result is convexity: a payoff profile that is flat-to-slightly-negative in calm markets and steeply positive in crisis markets — the curve shown on our home page. Because the hedge gains value fastest exactly when equities are cheapest to buy, a well-run tail hedge doesn't just cushion a drawdown — it can fund buying opportunities during it, a concept sometimes described as "safe haven investing."
How we build it
Size the exposure
We determine how much of a portfolio to allocate to convex protection so the ongoing cost stays small and sustainable.
Select the instruments
Options chains and individual equities are screened for asymmetric payoff — limited, known downside and a large potential upside in a drawdown.
Monitor and rebalance
Positions are tracked continuously against live market data, so hedges are refreshed as volatility, price, and time decay shift the payoff curve.
Our tools
Once you're logged in, IronWoods gives you access to three research tools built around this philosophy: Safe Haven for portfolio-level crash and hedge-sizing analysis, Option Scanner for screening live options chains for convex setups, and Stock Scanner for fundamentals-based equity analysis in the Buffett/Graham tradition.
IronWoods provides research tools and educational content. Nothing on this site constitutes investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Options and tail-hedging strategies carry significant risk, including loss of the full premium paid.