A binary logistic regression sets
and classifies by the sign of . Its unpenalized maximum-likelihood estimator minimizes the empirical logistic loss
The plotted data are complete separation data: there is a vector with every signed margin . For every finite , increasing strictly decreases each term of , and as . No finite parameter attains zero, so the unpenalized optimization has no solution.
Adding an penalty with , constraining , or using a finite stopping rule makes the problem attain a finite approximate solution. The penalized option is preferable because cross-validation can select the strength of regularization.