CART Cash-Secured Put Strategy
CART (Maplebear Inc.), in the Technology sector, (Software - Services industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Maplebear Inc., doing business as Instacart, operates as a technology and enablement partner for the grocery industry in the United States and internationally. The company offers Instacart Marketplace which helps retailers serve customers’ needs by supporting fulfillment options, shopping occasions, and categories; Instacart Enterprise platform, an end-to-end technology solution for retailers across all aspects of business; and Instacart Ads, enables brands to learn more about general consumer behavior from discovery to purchase, offering insights about how to optimize advertising spend. It also provides advertising solutions, including sponsored product ads, display ads, coupons, and brand pages; and software-as-a-service. The company’s services can be provided through company’s mobile application or website. Maplebear Inc., was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
CART (Maplebear Inc.) trades in the Technology sector, specifically Software - Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $11.49B, a trailing P/E of 23.92, a beta of 0.78 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 32.73-51.06, average daily share volume of 4.2M, a public-listing history dating back to 2023, approximately 4K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how CART stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.78 places CART roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline.
What is a cash-secured put on CART?
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.
CART snapshot
As of August 14, 2026, spot at $48.90, ATM IV 32.78%, IV rank 7.38%, expected move 9.40%. The cash-secured put on CART below is built from the August 14, 2026 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 CART specifically: CART IV at 32.78% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling CART cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 9.40% (roughly $4.59 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 CART expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on CART should anchor to the underlying notional of $48.90 per share and to the trader's directional view on CART stock.
CART cash-secured put setup
The CART cash-secured put below is built from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain, with each option leg priced at the bid/ask midpoint of its listed strike. With CART at $48.90 on that close, the first option leg uses a $46.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed CART 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 CART shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $46.00 | $0.78 |
CART cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$77.50
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $77.50
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$4,521.50
- Breakeven(s)
- $45.23
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.017
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
CART cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on CART. 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% | -$4,521.50 |
| $10.82 | -77.9% | -$3,440.40 |
| $21.63 | -55.8% | -$2,359.31 |
| $32.44 | -33.7% | -$1,278.21 |
| $43.25 | -11.5% | -$197.12 |
| $54.06 | +10.6% | +$77.50 |
| $64.88 | +32.7% | +$77.50 |
| $75.69 | +54.8% | +$77.50 |
| $86.50 | +76.9% | +$77.50 |
| $97.31 | +99.0% | +$77.50 |
When traders use cash-secured put on CART
Cash-secured puts on CART earn premium while a trader waits to acquire CART stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning CART.
CART thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for CART extends from approximately $44.31 on the downside to $53.49 on the upside. A CART cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire CART 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 CART IV rank near 7.38% 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 CART at 32.78%. As a Technology name, CART options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to CART-specific events.
CART 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. CART positions also carry Technology sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move CART alongside the broader basket even when CART-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on CART carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical CART earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current CART chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on CART?
- A cash-secured put on CART is the cash-secured put strategy applied to CART (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 CART stock at $48.90 on the August 14, 2026 close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed CART chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
- How are CART 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 CART cash-secured put priced from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 32.78%), the computed maximum profit is $77.50 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$4,521.50 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a CART cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the CART cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $45.23 at expiration, derived from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain's premiums. Breakeven is the underlying price at which the strategy's P&L crosses zero ignoring transaction costs and assignment risk. The CART market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 9.40%; 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 CART?
- Cash-secured puts on CART earn premium while a trader waits to acquire CART stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning CART.
- How does current CART implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- CART ATM IV is at 32.78% with IV rank near 7.38%, 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.