ACI Cash-Secured Put Strategy
ACI (Albertsons Companies, Inc.), in the Consumer Defensive sector, (Grocery Stores industry), listed on NYSE.
Albertsons Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of food and drug stores in the United States. The company's food and drug retail stores offer grocery products, general merchandise, health and beauty care products, pharmacy, fuel, and other items and services. It also manufactures and processes food products for sale in stores. As of February 26, 2022, it operated 2,276 stores under various banners, including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Carrs, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Shaw's, Star Market, United Supermarkets, Market Street, Haggen, Kings Food Markets, and Balducci's Food Lovers Market; and 1,722 pharmacies, 1,317 in-store branded coffee shops, 402 adjacent fuel centers, 22 distribution centers, and 20 manufacturing facilities, as well as various digital platforms. The company was founded in 1860 and is headquartered in Boise, Idaho.
ACI (Albertsons Companies, Inc.) trades in the Consumer Defensive sector, specifically Grocery Stores, with a market capitalization of approximately $8.18B, a trailing P/E of 38.78, a beta of 0.26 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 15.545-22.78, average daily share volume of 6.4M, a public-listing history dating back to 2020, approximately 108K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how ACI stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.26 indicates ACI has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. The trailing P/E of 38.78 is on the rich side, which tends to correlate with higher earnings-window IV expansion as the market debates whether forward growth supports the multiple. ACI pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a cash-secured put on ACI?
A cash-secured put sells an out-of-the-money put while holding cash equal to the strike-times-100 obligation, keeping the premium when the underlying stays above the strike.
Current ACI snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $16.49, ATM IV 31.00%, IV rank 49.63%, expected move 8.89%. The cash-secured put on ACI 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 28-day expiry.
Why this cash-secured put structure on ACI specifically: ACI IV at 31.00% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so the credit collected on a ACI cash-secured put sits in line with its long-run distribution, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 8.89% (roughly $1.47 on the underlying). The 28-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated ACI expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on ACI should anchor to the underlying notional of $16.49 per share and to the trader's directional view on ACI stock.
ACI cash-secured put setup
The ACI cash-secured put below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With ACI near $16.49, the first option leg uses a $16.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed ACI chain at a 28-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 ACI shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $16.00 | $0.35 |
ACI cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$35.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $35.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$1,564.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $15.65
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.022
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
ACI cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on ACI. 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 | -99.9% | -$1,564.00 |
| $3.65 | -77.8% | -$1,199.51 |
| $7.30 | -55.7% | -$835.02 |
| $10.94 | -33.6% | -$470.52 |
| $14.59 | -11.5% | -$106.03 |
| $18.23 | +10.6% | +$35.00 |
| $21.88 | +32.7% | +$35.00 |
| $25.52 | +54.8% | +$35.00 |
| $29.17 | +76.9% | +$35.00 |
| $32.81 | +99.0% | +$35.00 |
When traders use cash-secured put on ACI
Cash-secured puts on ACI earn premium while a trader waits to acquire ACI stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning ACI.
ACI thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for ACI extends from approximately $15.02 on the downside to $17.96 on the upside. A ACI cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire ACI at the strike price; the strategy is most attractive when the trader is comfortable holding the underlying at that level and IV is rich enough to compensate for the assignment risk. Current ACI IV rank near 49.63% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the cash-secured put thesis on ACI should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Consumer Defensive name, ACI options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to ACI-specific events.
ACI cash-secured put positions are structurally neutral to slightly bullish; 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. ACI positions also carry Consumer Defensive sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move ACI alongside the broader basket even when ACI-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on ACI carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical ACI earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current ACI chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on ACI?
- A cash-secured put on ACI is the cash-secured put strategy applied to ACI (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral to slightly bullish: A cash-secured put sells an out-of-the-money put while holding cash equal to the strike-times-100 obligation, keeping the premium when the underlying stays above the strike. With ACI stock trading near $16.49, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed ACI chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are ACI cash-secured put max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium. For the ACI cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 31.00%), the computed maximum profit is $35.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$1,564.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a ACI cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the ACI cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $15.65 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 ACI market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 8.89%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a cash-secured put on ACI?
- Cash-secured puts on ACI earn premium while a trader waits to acquire ACI stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning ACI.
- How does current ACI implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- ACI ATM IV is at 31.00% with IV rank near 49.63%, which is mid-range against its 1-year history. Strategy selection depends more on directional thesis and expected move than on a strong IV signal.