ACRE Cash-Secured Put Strategy
ACRE (Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation), in the Real Estate sector, (REIT - Mortgage industry), listed on NYSE.
Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation, a specialty finance company, originates and invests in commercial real estate (CRE) loans and related investments in the United States. The company provides a range of financing solutions for the owners, operators, and sponsors of CRE properties. It originates senior mortgage loans, subordinate debt products, mezzanine loans, real estate preferred equity investments, and other CRE investments, including commercial mortgage backed securities. The company has elected and qualified to be taxed as a real estate investment trust for the United States federal income tax purposes under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Ares Commercial Real Estate Management LLC operates as the manager of the company. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is based in New York, New York.
ACRE (Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation) trades in the Real Estate sector, specifically REIT - Mortgage, with a market capitalization of approximately $264.1M, a beta of 1.23 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 4.05-5.89, average daily share volume of 422K, a public-listing history dating back to 2012, approximately 1K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how ACRE stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.23 places ACRE roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. ACRE 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 ACRE?
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 ACRE snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $4.61, ATM IV 22.90%, IV rank 13.65%, expected move 6.57%. The cash-secured put on ACRE 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 ACRE specifically: ACRE IV at 22.90% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling ACRE cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 6.57% (roughly $0.30 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 ACRE expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on ACRE should anchor to the underlying notional of $4.61 per share and to the trader's directional view on ACRE stock.
ACRE cash-secured put setup
The ACRE 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 ACRE near $4.61, the first option leg uses a $4.38 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed ACRE 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 ACRE shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $4.38 | N/A |
ACRE cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- N/A
- Max Profit (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Max Loss (per contract)
- Unbounded
- Breakeven(s)
- None on modeled curve
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- N/A
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
ACRE cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on ACRE. 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.
When traders use cash-secured put on ACRE
Cash-secured puts on ACRE earn premium while a trader waits to acquire ACRE stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning ACRE.
ACRE thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for ACRE extends from approximately $4.31 on the downside to $4.91 on the upside. A ACRE cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire ACRE 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 ACRE IV rank near 13.65% 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 ACRE at 22.90%. As a Real Estate name, ACRE options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to ACRE-specific events.
ACRE 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. ACRE positions also carry Real Estate sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move ACRE alongside the broader basket even when ACRE-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on ACRE carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical ACRE earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current ACRE chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on ACRE?
- A cash-secured put on ACRE is the cash-secured put strategy applied to ACRE (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 ACRE stock trading near $4.61, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed ACRE chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are ACRE 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 ACRE cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 22.90%), the computed maximum profit is unbounded per contract and the computed maximum loss is unbounded per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a ACRE cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the ACRE cash-secured put priced on this page is no defined breakeven on the modeled curve 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 ACRE market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 6.57%; 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 ACRE?
- Cash-secured puts on ACRE earn premium while a trader waits to acquire ACRE stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning ACRE.
- How does current ACRE implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- ACRE ATM IV is at 22.90% with IV rank near 13.65%, 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.