CRC Iron Condor Strategy
CRC (California Resources Corp), in the Energy sector, (Oil & Gas Exploration & Production industry), listed on NYSE.
California Resources Corporation operates as an independent energy and carbon management company in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Oil and Natural Gas, and Carbon Management. It explores, develops, and produces crude oil, oil condensate, natural gas liquids and natural gas to california refineries, marketers, and other purchasers. The company also provides Carbon TerraVault which builds, installs, operates, and maintains CO2 capture equipment, transportation assets, and storage facilities. In addition, it owns and operates power generation facilities, as well as smaller gas-fired power plants used to generate power for oil and natural gas operations. The company was incorporated in 2014 and is based in Long Beach, California.
CRC (California Resources Corp) trades in the Energy sector, specifically Oil & Gas Exploration & Production, with a market capitalization of approximately $4.73B, a beta of 0.90 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 43.245-71.98, average daily share volume of 811K, a public-listing history dating back to 2020, approximately 3K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how CRC stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.90 places CRC roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. CRC pays a dividend, which adjusts put-call parity and shifts the ex-dividend pricing across the listed chain.
What is a iron condor on CRC?
An iron condor sells a call spread and a put spread at strikes outside spot, collecting net premium that is kept if the underlying stays inside the inner short strikes.
CRC snapshot
As of August 14, 2026, spot at $53.57, ATM IV 36.00%, IV rank 1.35%, expected move 10.32%. The iron condor on CRC 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 63-day expiry.
Why this iron condor structure on CRC specifically: CRC IV at 36.00% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling CRC iron condor collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 10.32% (roughly $5.53 on the underlying). The 63-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated CRC expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on CRC should anchor to the underlying notional of $53.57 per share and to the trader's directional view on CRC stock.
CRC iron condor setup
The CRC iron condor 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 CRC at $53.57 on that close, the first option leg uses a $55.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed CRC chain at a 63-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 CRC shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Call | $55.00 | $2.48 |
| Buy 1 | Call | $60.00 | $1.00 |
| Sell 1 | Put | $50.00 | $1.50 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $47.50 | $1.08 |
CRC iron condor risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$190.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $190.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$310.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $48.10, $56.90
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.613
Max profit equals the net credit times 100 inside the inner strikes; max loss equals wing width minus credit times 100. Two breakevens at inner strikes plus and minus the credit.
CRC iron condor payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the iron condor on CRC. 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% | -$60.00 |
| $11.85 | -77.9% | -$60.00 |
| $23.70 | -55.8% | -$60.00 |
| $35.54 | -33.7% | -$60.00 |
| $47.38 | -11.5% | -$60.00 |
| $59.23 | +10.6% | -$232.76 |
| $71.07 | +32.7% | -$310.00 |
| $82.91 | +54.8% | -$310.00 |
| $94.76 | +76.9% | -$310.00 |
| $106.60 | +99.0% | -$310.00 |
When traders use iron condor on CRC
Iron condors on CRC are a delta-neutral premium-collection structure that profits if CRC stock stays inside the inner short strikes; short strikes typically sit near 1 standard deviation from spot.
CRC thesis for this iron condor
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for CRC extends from approximately $48.04 on the downside to $59.10 on the upside. A CRC iron condor is a delta-neutral premium-collection structure that pays off when CRC stays inside the inner short strikes through expiration; the wing width should reflect the trader's tolerance for the maximum loss scenario where the underlying breaches an outer strike. Current CRC IV rank near 1.35% 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 CRC at 36.00%. As a Energy name, CRC options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to CRC-specific events.
CRC iron condor positions are structurally neutral / range-bound; 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. CRC positions also carry Energy sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move CRC alongside the broader basket even when CRC-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a iron condor on CRC carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical CRC earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current CRC chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a iron condor on CRC?
- A iron condor on CRC is the iron condor strategy applied to CRC (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral / range-bound: An iron condor sells a call spread and a put spread at strikes outside spot, collecting net premium that is kept if the underlying stays inside the inner short strikes. With CRC stock at $53.57 on the August 14, 2026 close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed CRC chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
- How are CRC iron condor max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals the net credit times 100 inside the inner strikes; max loss equals wing width minus credit times 100. Two breakevens at inner strikes plus and minus the credit. For the CRC iron condor priced from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 36.00%), the computed maximum profit is $190.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$310.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a CRC iron condor?
- The breakeven for the CRC iron condor priced on this page is roughly $48.10 and $56.90 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 CRC market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 10.32%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a iron condor on CRC?
- Iron condors on CRC are a delta-neutral premium-collection structure that profits if CRC stock stays inside the inner short strikes; short strikes typically sit near 1 standard deviation from spot.
- How does current CRC implied volatility affect this iron condor?
- CRC ATM IV is at 36.00% with IV rank near 1.35%, 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.