AFL Cash-Secured Put Strategy
AFL (Aflac Incorporated), in the Financial Services sector, (Insurance - Life industry), listed on NYSE.
Aflac Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides supplemental health and life insurance products. It operates through two segments, Aflac Japan and Aflac U.S. The Aflac Japan segment offers cancer, medical, nursing care income support, GIFT, and whole and term life insurance products, as well as WAYS and child endowment plans under saving type insurance products in Japan. The Aflac U.S. segment provides cancer, accident, short-term disability, critical illness, hospital indemnity, dental, vision, long-term care and disability, and term and whole life insurance products in the United States. It sells its products through sales associates, brokers, independent corporate agencies, individual agencies, and affiliated corporate agencies. The company was founded in 1955 and is based in Columbus, Georgia.
AFL (Aflac Incorporated) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Insurance - Life, with a market capitalization of approximately $58.78B, a trailing P/E of 12.78, a beta of 0.62 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 96.95-119.32, average daily share volume of 2.3M, a public-listing history dating back to 1980, approximately 13K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how AFL stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.62 indicates AFL has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. AFL 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 AFL?
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 AFL snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $117.09, ATM IV 16.35%, IV rank 19.95%, expected move 4.69%. The cash-secured put on AFL 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 AFL specifically: AFL IV at 16.35% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling AFL cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 4.69% (roughly $5.49 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 AFL expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on AFL should anchor to the underlying notional of $117.09 per share and to the trader's directional view on AFL stock.
AFL cash-secured put setup
The AFL 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 AFL near $117.09, the first option leg uses a $111.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed AFL 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 AFL shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $111.00 | $0.73 |
AFL cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$72.50
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $72.50
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$11,026.50
- Breakeven(s)
- $110.28
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.007
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
AFL cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on AFL. 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% | -$11,026.50 |
| $25.90 | -77.9% | -$8,437.69 |
| $51.79 | -55.8% | -$5,848.87 |
| $77.67 | -33.7% | -$3,260.06 |
| $103.56 | -11.6% | -$671.24 |
| $129.45 | +10.6% | +$72.50 |
| $155.34 | +32.7% | +$72.50 |
| $181.23 | +54.8% | +$72.50 |
| $207.12 | +76.9% | +$72.50 |
| $233.00 | +99.0% | +$72.50 |
When traders use cash-secured put on AFL
Cash-secured puts on AFL earn premium while a trader waits to acquire AFL stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning AFL.
AFL thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for AFL extends from approximately $111.60 on the downside to $122.58 on the upside. A AFL cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire AFL 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 AFL IV rank near 19.95% 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 AFL at 16.35%. As a Financial Services name, AFL options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to AFL-specific events.
AFL 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. AFL positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move AFL alongside the broader basket even when AFL-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on AFL carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical AFL earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current AFL chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on AFL?
- A cash-secured put on AFL is the cash-secured put strategy applied to AFL (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 AFL stock trading near $117.09, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed AFL chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are AFL 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 AFL cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 16.35%), the computed maximum profit is $72.50 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$11,026.50 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a AFL cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the AFL cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $110.28 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 AFL market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 4.69%; 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 AFL?
- Cash-secured puts on AFL earn premium while a trader waits to acquire AFL stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning AFL.
- How does current AFL implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- AFL ATM IV is at 16.35% with IV rank near 19.95%, 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.