ACM Cash-Secured Put Strategy
ACM (Aecom), in the Industrials sector, (Engineering & Construction industry), listed on NYSE.
AECOM, together with its subsidiaries, provides professional infrastructure consulting services for governments, businesses, and organizations in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates through three segments: Americas, International, and AECOM Capital. The company offers planning, consulting, architectural and engineering design, construction and program management, and investment and development services to commercial and government clients. It also invests in and develops real estate projects. In addition, the company provides construction services, including building construction and energy, and infrastructure and industrial construction. It serves transportation, water, government, facilities, environmental, and energy sectors.
ACM (Aecom) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Engineering & Construction, with a market capitalization of approximately $9.12B, a trailing P/E of 17.95, a beta of 1.00 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 67.64-135.52, average daily share volume of 1.3M, a public-listing history dating back to 2007, approximately 51K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how ACM stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.00 places ACM roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. ACM 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 ACM?
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 ACM snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $71.28, ATM IV 38.10%, IV rank 28.88%, expected move 10.92%. The cash-secured put on ACM 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 cash-secured put structure on ACM specifically: ACM IV at 38.10% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling ACM cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 10.92% (roughly $7.79 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 ACM expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on ACM should anchor to the underlying notional of $71.28 per share and to the trader's directional view on ACM stock.
ACM cash-secured put setup
The ACM 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 ACM near $71.28, the first option leg uses a $70.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed ACM 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 ACM shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $70.00 | $2.63 |
ACM cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$262.50
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $262.50
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$6,736.50
- Breakeven(s)
- $67.38
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.039
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
ACM cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on ACM. 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% | -$6,736.50 |
| $15.77 | -77.9% | -$5,160.57 |
| $31.53 | -55.8% | -$3,584.64 |
| $47.29 | -33.7% | -$2,008.71 |
| $63.05 | -11.5% | -$432.78 |
| $78.81 | +10.6% | +$262.50 |
| $94.57 | +32.7% | +$262.50 |
| $110.33 | +54.8% | +$262.50 |
| $126.08 | +76.9% | +$262.50 |
| $141.84 | +99.0% | +$262.50 |
When traders use cash-secured put on ACM
Cash-secured puts on ACM earn premium while a trader waits to acquire ACM stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning ACM.
ACM thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for ACM extends from approximately $63.49 on the downside to $79.07 on the upside. A ACM cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire ACM 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 ACM IV rank near 28.88% 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 ACM at 38.10%. As a Industrials name, ACM options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to ACM-specific events.
ACM 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. ACM positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move ACM alongside the broader basket even when ACM-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on ACM carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical ACM earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current ACM chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on ACM?
- A cash-secured put on ACM is the cash-secured put strategy applied to ACM (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 ACM stock trading near $71.28, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed ACM chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are ACM 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 ACM cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 38.10%), the computed maximum profit is $262.50 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$6,736.50 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a ACM cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the ACM cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $67.38 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 ACM market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 10.92%; 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 ACM?
- Cash-secured puts on ACM earn premium while a trader waits to acquire ACM stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning ACM.
- How does current ACM implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- ACM ATM IV is at 38.10% with IV rank near 28.88%, 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.