CTOS Cash-Secured Put Strategy
CTOS (Custom Truck One Source, Inc.), in the Industrials sector, (Rental & Leasing Services industry), listed on NYSE.
Custom Truck One Source, Inc. (CTOS) specializes in providing comprehensive services for specialty equipment across North America, serving crucial industries such as electric utility (transmission and distribution), telecommunications, rail, and other infrastructure development sectors. The company's operations are structured into three primary segments: Equipment Rental Solutions, Truck and Equipment Sales, and Aftermarket Parts and Services. Within its Equipment Rental Solutions division, CTOS offers access to a wide array of new and pre-owned specialized machinery for hire, including truck-mounted aerial lifts, various types of cranes, service vehicles, dump trucks, trailers, and digger derricks. The Truck and Equipment Sales segment focuses on the direct sale of new equipment, which can be extensively customized to meet the specific demands of its diverse clientele. Furthermore, the Aftermarket Parts and Services segment ensures ongoing support through equipment maintenance and repair services, along with the provision of specialized replacement parts. Originally founded in 1988 as Nesco Holdings, Inc., the company officially changed its name to Custom Truck One Source, Inc. in April 2021 and maintains its corporate headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri.
CTOS (Custom Truck One Source, Inc.) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Rental & Leasing Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.72B, a beta of 1.39 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 4.84-12.23, average daily share volume of 1.0M, a public-listing history dating back to 2017, approximately 3K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how CTOS stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.39 indicates CTOS has historically moved more than the broader market, amplifying both the directional payoff and the realized volatility relative to an index-equivalent position.
What is a cash-secured put on CTOS?
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 CTOS snapshot
As of June 30, 2026, spot at $11.86, ATM IV 53.10%, IV rank 9.16%, expected move 15.22%. The cash-secured put on CTOS 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 17-day expiry.
Why this cash-secured put structure on CTOS specifically: CTOS IV at 53.10% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling CTOS cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 15.22% (roughly $1.81 on the underlying). The 17-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated CTOS expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on CTOS should anchor to the underlying notional of $11.86 per share and to the trader's directional view on CTOS stock.
CTOS cash-secured put setup
The CTOS 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 CTOS near $11.86, the first option leg uses a $11.27 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed CTOS chain at a 17-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 CTOS shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $11.27 | N/A |
CTOS 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.
CTOS cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on CTOS. 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 CTOS
Cash-secured puts on CTOS earn premium while a trader waits to acquire CTOS stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning CTOS.
CTOS thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for CTOS extends from approximately $10.05 on the downside to $13.67 on the upside. A CTOS cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire CTOS 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 CTOS IV rank near 9.16% 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 CTOS at 53.10%. As a Industrials name, CTOS options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to CTOS-specific events.
CTOS 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. CTOS positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move CTOS alongside the broader basket even when CTOS-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on CTOS carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical CTOS earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current CTOS chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on CTOS?
- A cash-secured put on CTOS is the cash-secured put strategy applied to CTOS (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 CTOS stock trading near $11.86, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed CTOS chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are CTOS 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 CTOS cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 53.10%), 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 CTOS cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the CTOS 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 CTOS market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 15.22%; 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 CTOS?
- Cash-secured puts on CTOS earn premium while a trader waits to acquire CTOS stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning CTOS.
- How does current CTOS implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- CTOS ATM IV is at 53.10% with IV rank near 9.16%, 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.