AGO Cash-Secured Put Strategy
AGO (Assured Guaranty Ltd.), in the Financial Services sector, (Insurance - Specialty industry), listed on NYSE.
Assured Guaranty Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides credit protection products to public finance, infrastructure, and structured finance markets in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Insurance and Asset Management. It offers financial guaranty insurance that protects holders of debt instruments and other monetary obligations from defaults in scheduled payments. The company insures and reinsures various debt obligations, including bonds issued by the United States state governmental authorities; and notes issued to finance infrastructure projects. It also insures and reinsures various the U.S. public finance obligations, such as general obligation, tax-backed, municipal utility, transportation, healthcare, higher education, infrastructure, housing revenue, investor-owned utility, renewable energy, and other public finance bonds. Further, it is involved in insuring and reinsuring of non-U.S. public finance obligations comprising regulated utilities, infrastructure finance, sovereign and sub-sovereign, renewable energy bonds, pooled infrastructure, and other public finance obligations; and the U.S. and non-U.S.
AGO (Assured Guaranty Ltd.) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Insurance - Specialty, with a market capitalization of approximately $3.33B, a trailing P/E of 8.22, a beta of 0.81 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 74.18-92.4, average daily share volume of 349K, a public-listing history dating back to 2004, approximately 361 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how AGO stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.81 places AGO roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. The trailing P/E of 8.22 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price. AGO 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 AGO?
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 AGO snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $74.82, ATM IV 24.60%, IV rank 39.99%, expected move 7.05%. The cash-secured put on AGO 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 AGO specifically: AGO IV at 24.60% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so the credit collected on a AGO cash-secured put sits in line with its long-run distribution, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 7.05% (roughly $5.28 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 AGO expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on AGO should anchor to the underlying notional of $74.82 per share and to the trader's directional view on AGO stock.
AGO cash-secured put setup
The AGO 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 AGO near $74.82, the first option leg uses a $71.08 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed AGO 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 AGO shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $71.08 | N/A |
AGO 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.
AGO cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on AGO. 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 AGO
Cash-secured puts on AGO earn premium while a trader waits to acquire AGO stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning AGO.
AGO thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for AGO extends from approximately $69.54 on the downside to $80.10 on the upside. A AGO cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire AGO 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 AGO IV rank near 39.99% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the cash-secured put thesis on AGO should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Financial Services name, AGO options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to AGO-specific events.
AGO 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. AGO positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move AGO alongside the broader basket even when AGO-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on AGO carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical AGO earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current AGO chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on AGO?
- A cash-secured put on AGO is the cash-secured put strategy applied to AGO (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 AGO stock trading near $74.82, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed AGO chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are AGO 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 AGO cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 24.60%), 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 AGO cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the AGO 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 AGO market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 7.05%; 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 AGO?
- Cash-secured puts on AGO earn premium while a trader waits to acquire AGO stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning AGO.
- How does current AGO implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- AGO ATM IV is at 24.60% with IV rank near 39.99%, 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.