CGBD Covered Call Strategy
CGBD (Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc.), in the Financial Services sector, (Asset Management industry), listed on NASDAQ.
Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. functions as a business development company, primarily making direct investments. The firm provides a diverse array of financing, including first and second lien senior secured loans, unsecured debt, mezzanine debt, and equity stakes. It focuses its investment efforts on the middle market segment. Industries of interest include healthcare and pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defense, high technology, business services, software, the beverage, food, and tobacco sectors, hospitality, gaming, and leisure, banking, finance, and insurance, and real estate. Geographically, Carlyle Secured Lending invests in companies located in the United States, Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, and the United Kingdom. It typically targets businesses generating an EBITDA between $25 million and $100 million.
CGBD (Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc.) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Asset Management, with a market capitalization of approximately $771.4M, a trailing P/E of 21.27, a beta of 0.68 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 9.945-14.035, average daily share volume of 643K, a public-listing history dating back to 2017, approximately 3K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how CGBD stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.68 indicates CGBD has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. CGBD pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a covered call on CGBD?
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.
CGBD snapshot
As of August 14, 2026, spot at $11.38, ATM IV 99.90%, IV rank 19.78%, expected move 6.34%. The covered call on CGBD below is built from the end-of-day chain, with strikes snapped to listed contracts and premiums pulled from the bid/ask midpoint at a 35-day expiry.
Why this covered call structure on CGBD specifically: CGBD IV at 99.90% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling CGBD covered call collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 6.34% (roughly $0.72 on the underlying). The 35-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated CGBD expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on CGBD should anchor to the underlying notional of $11.38 per share and to the trader's directional view on CGBD stock.
CGBD covered call setup
The CGBD 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 CGBD at $11.38 on that close, the first option leg uses a $11.95 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed CGBD chain at a 35-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 CGBD shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $11.38 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $11.95 | N/A |
CGBD 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.
CGBD covered call payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the covered call on CGBD. 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 CGBD
Covered calls on CGBD are an income strategy run on existing CGBD stock positions; traders typically sell calls at 25-35 delta with 30-45 days to expiration to balance premium against upside cap.
CGBD thesis for this covered call
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for CGBD extends from approximately $10.66 on the downside to $12.10 on the upside. A CGBD covered call collects premium on an existing long CGBD position, trading off upside above the short call strike for immediate income; the short strike selection should reflect the trader's view on whether CGBD will breach that level within the expiration window. Current CGBD IV rank near 19.78% 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 CGBD at 99.90%. As a Financial Services name, CGBD options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to CGBD-specific events.
CGBD 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. CGBD positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move CGBD alongside the broader basket even when CGBD-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a covered call on CGBD carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical CGBD earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current CGBD chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a covered call on CGBD?
- A covered call on CGBD is the covered call strategy applied to CGBD (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 CGBD stock at $11.38 on the most recent close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed CGBD chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
- How are CGBD 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 CGBD covered call priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 99.90%), 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 CGBD covered call?
- The breakeven for the CGBD covered call priced on this page is no defined breakeven on the modeled curve at expiration, derived from the 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 CGBD market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 6.34%; 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 CGBD?
- Covered calls on CGBD are an income strategy run on existing CGBD 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 CGBD implied volatility affect this covered call?
- CGBD ATM IV is at 99.90% with IV rank near 19.78%, 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.