ACTG Covered Call Strategy
ACTG (Acacia Research Corporation), in the Industrials sector, (Specialty Business Services industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Acacia Research Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, invests in intellectual property and related absolute return assets; and engages in the licensing and enforcement of patented technologies. The company operates through two segments, Intellectual Property Operations and Industrial Operations. The company owns or controls the rights to various patent portfolios, which include U.S. patents and foreign counterparts covering technologies used in a range of industries. It has executed approximately 1,600 license agreements, and approximately 200 patent portfolio licensing and enforcement programs. It also designs manufactures printers and parts, and consumable products through dealers and distributors for various industrial printing applications. In addition, the company offers supply-chain printing solutions for manufacturing, transportation and logistics, retail distribution, food and beverage distribution, and pharmaceutical distribution industries; and line matrix printers for mission critical applications within labeling and inventory management, build sheets, invoicing, manifests and bills of lading, and reporting industries.
ACTG (Acacia Research Corporation) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Specialty Business Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $455.9M, a beta of 0.49 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 3.12-5.27, average daily share volume of 328K, a public-listing history dating back to 2002, approximately 1K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how ACTG stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.49 indicates ACTG has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure.
What is a covered call on ACTG?
A covered call pairs long stock with a short out-of-the-money call, collecting premium and capping upside above the short strike in exchange for income.
Current ACTG snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $4.56, ATM IV 19.00%, IV rank 3.52%, expected move 5.45%. The covered call on ACTG 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 covered call structure on ACTG specifically: ACTG IV at 19.00% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling ACTG covered call collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 5.45% (roughly $0.25 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 ACTG expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on ACTG should anchor to the underlying notional of $4.56 per share and to the trader's directional view on ACTG stock.
ACTG covered call setup
The ACTG covered call below is built from the end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With ACTG near $4.56, the first option leg uses a $4.79 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed ACTG 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 ACTG shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $4.56 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $4.79 | N/A |
ACTG covered call 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 short-strike minus cost basis plus premium times 100; max loss is cost basis minus premium (at zero). Breakeven is cost basis minus premium.
ACTG covered call payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the covered call on ACTG. 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 covered call on ACTG
Covered calls on ACTG are an income strategy run on existing ACTG stock positions; traders typically sell calls at 25-35 delta with 30-45 days to expiration to balance premium against upside cap.
ACTG thesis for this covered call
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for ACTG extends from approximately $4.31 on the downside to $4.81 on the upside. A ACTG covered call collects premium on an existing long ACTG position, trading off upside above the short call strike for immediate income; the short strike selection should reflect the trader's view on whether ACTG will breach that level within the expiration window. Current ACTG IV rank near 3.52% 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 ACTG at 19.00%. As a Industrials name, ACTG options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to ACTG-specific events.
ACTG covered call 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. ACTG positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move ACTG alongside the broader basket even when ACTG-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a covered call on ACTG carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical ACTG earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current ACTG chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a covered call on ACTG?
- A covered call on ACTG is the covered call strategy applied to ACTG (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral to slightly bullish: A covered call pairs long stock with a short out-of-the-money call, collecting premium and capping upside above the short strike in exchange for income. With ACTG stock trading near $4.56, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed ACTG chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are ACTG covered call max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals short-strike minus cost basis plus premium times 100; max loss is cost basis minus premium (at zero). Breakeven is cost basis minus premium. For the ACTG covered call priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 19.00%), 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 ACTG covered call?
- The breakeven for the ACTG covered call 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 ACTG market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 5.45%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a covered call on ACTG?
- Covered calls on ACTG are an income strategy run on existing ACTG stock positions; traders typically sell calls at 25-35 delta with 30-45 days to expiration to balance premium against upside cap.
- How does current ACTG implied volatility affect this covered call?
- ACTG ATM IV is at 19.00% with IV rank near 3.52%, 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.