ACA Straddle Strategy
ACA (Arcosa, Inc.), in the Industrials sector, (Industrial - Infrastructure Operations industry), listed on NYSE.
Arcosa, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides infrastructure-related products and solutions for the construction, energy, and transportation markets in North America. It operates through three segments: Construction Products, Engineered Structures, and Transportation Products. The Construction Products segment offers natural and recycled aggregates; specialty materials; and trench shields and shoring products for residential and non-residential construction, agriculture, specialty building products, as well as for infrastructure related projects. The Engineered Structures segment provides utility structures, wind towers, traffic and lighting structures, telecommunication structures, storage and distribution tanks for electricity transmission and distribution, wind power generation, highway road construction, and wireless communication markets, as well as for gas and liquids storage and transportation for residential, commercial, energy, agriculture, and industrial markets. The Transportation Products segment offers inland barges; fiberglass barge covers, winches, and other components; cast components for industrial and mining sectors; and axles, circular forgings, coupling devices for freight, tank, locomotive, and passenger rail transportation equipment, as well as other industrial uses. Arcosa, Inc. was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
ACA (Arcosa, Inc.) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Industrial - Infrastructure Operations, with a market capitalization of approximately $6.33B, a trailing P/E of 28.37, a beta of 1.08 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 81.91-135.58, average daily share volume of 337K, a public-listing history dating back to 2018, approximately 6K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how ACA stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.08 places ACA roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. ACA pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a straddle on ACA?
A long straddle buys an ATM call and an ATM put at the same strike, profiting from a large move in either direction; max loss equals the combined debit when the underlying pins to the strike at expiration.
Current ACA snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $124.17, ATM IV 33.00%, IV rank 3.43%, expected move 9.46%. The straddle on ACA below is built from the same end-of-day chain, with strikes snapped to listed contracts and premiums pulled from the bid/ask midpoint at a 34-day expiry.
Why this straddle structure on ACA specifically: ACA IV at 33.00% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a ACA straddle, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 9.46% (roughly $11.75 on the underlying). The 34-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated ACA expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on ACA should anchor to the underlying notional of $124.17 per share and to the trader's directional view on ACA stock.
ACA straddle setup
The ACA straddle below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With ACA near $124.17, the first option leg uses a $125.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed ACA chain at a 34-day expiry; the cross-strike IV skew is reflected directly in the per-leg values rather than approximated. Quantity sizing assumes one contract per option leg (or 100 ACA shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Call | $125.00 | $5.00 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $125.00 | $4.95 |
ACA straddle risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$995.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$974.89
- Breakeven(s)
- $115.05, $134.95
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- Unbounded
Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the strike minus the combined call plus put debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached when the underlying pins to the strike). Two breakevens at strike plus debit and strike minus debit.
ACA straddle payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the straddle on ACA. Each row is one sampled price point from the computed payoff curve; the full curve uses 200 price points internally before being summarized into 10 rows here.
| Underlying Price | % From Spot | P&L at Expiration |
|---|---|---|
| $0.01 | -100.0% | +$11,504.00 |
| $27.46 | -77.9% | +$8,758.64 |
| $54.92 | -55.8% | +$6,013.29 |
| $82.37 | -33.7% | +$3,267.93 |
| $109.82 | -11.6% | +$522.57 |
| $137.28 | +10.6% | +$232.78 |
| $164.73 | +32.7% | +$2,978.14 |
| $192.18 | +54.8% | +$5,723.50 |
| $219.64 | +76.9% | +$8,468.85 |
| $247.09 | +99.0% | +$11,214.21 |
When traders use straddle on ACA
Straddles on ACA are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy ACA straddles ahead of earnings, FDA decisions, or other catalysts where the realized move is expected to exceed the implied move priced into the chain.
ACA thesis for this straddle
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for ACA extends from approximately $112.42 on the downside to $135.92 on the upside. A ACA long straddle is a pure-volatility play: it profits when the underlying moves far enough from the strike in either direction to overcome the combined call plus put debit, regardless of direction. Current ACA IV rank near 3.43% sits in the lower third of its 1-year distribution, where IV often re-expands toward the mean; this favors premium-buying structures and disadvantages premium-selling structures on ACA at 33.00%. As a Industrials name, ACA options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to ACA-specific events.
ACA straddle positions are structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium); the modeled P&L assumes European-style exercise at expiration and ignores early assignment, transaction costs, dividends paid before expiry on the stock leg (when present), and the bid-ask spread on the listed chain. ACA positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move ACA alongside the broader basket even when ACA-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Always rebuild the position from current ACA chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a straddle on ACA?
- A straddle on ACA is the straddle strategy applied to ACA (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral / high-volatility (long premium): A long straddle buys an ATM call and an ATM put at the same strike, profiting from a large move in either direction; max loss equals the combined debit when the underlying pins to the strike at expiration. With ACA stock trading near $124.17, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed ACA chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are ACA straddle max profit and max loss calculated?
- Upside max profit is unbounded; downside max profit is bounded at the strike minus the combined call plus put debit (reached at zero). Max loss equals the combined debit times 100 (reached when the underlying pins to the strike). Two breakevens at strike plus debit and strike minus debit. For the ACA straddle priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 33.00%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$974.89 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a ACA straddle?
- The breakeven for the ACA straddle priced on this page is roughly $115.05 and $134.95 at expiration, derived from end-of-day chain premiums. Breakeven is the underlying price at which the strategy's P&L crosses zero ignoring transaction costs and assignment risk. The current ACA market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 9.46%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a straddle on ACA?
- Straddles on ACA are pure-volatility plays that profit from large moves in either direction; traders typically buy ACA straddles ahead of earnings, FDA decisions, or other catalysts where the realized move is expected to exceed the implied move priced into the chain.
- How does current ACA implied volatility affect this straddle?
- ACA ATM IV is at 33.00% with IV rank near 3.43%, which is on the low end of its 1-year range. Premium-buying structures (long call, long put, debit spreads) are relatively cheap in this regime; premium-selling structures collect less credit per unit risk.