DG Cash-Secured Put Strategy
DG (Dollar General Corporation), in the Consumer Defensive sector, (Discount Stores industry), listed on NYSE.
Dollar General Corporation, a discount retailer, provides various merchandise products in the southern, southwestern, Midwestern, and eastern United States. It offers consumable products, including paper and cleaning products, such as paper towels, bath tissues, paper dinnerware, trash and storage bags, disinfectants, and laundry products; packaged food comprising cereals, pasta, canned soups, fruits and vegetables, condiments, spices, sugar, and flour; and perishables that include milk, eggs, bread, refrigerated and frozen food, beer, and wine. The company's consumable products also comprise snacks, such as candies, cookies, crackers, salty snacks, and carbonated beverages; health and beauty products, including over-the-counter medicines and personal care products, such as soaps, body washes, shampoos, cosmetics, and dental hygiene and foot care products; pet supplies and pet food; and tobacco products. In addition, it offers seasonal products comprising holiday items, toys, batteries, small electronics, greeting cards, stationery, prepaid phones and accessories, gardening supplies, hardware, and automotive and home office supplies; and home products that include kitchen supplies, cookware, small appliances, light bulbs, storage containers, frames, candles, craft supplies and kitchen, and bed and bath soft goods. Further, the company provides apparel, which comprise casual everyday apparel for infants, toddlers, girls, boys, women, and men, as well as socks, underwear, disposable diapers, shoes, and accessories. As of February 25, 2022, it operated 18,190 stores in 47 states in the United States.
DG (Dollar General Corporation) trades in the Consumer Defensive sector, specifically Discount Stores, with a market capitalization of approximately $22.41B, a trailing P/E of 14.81, a beta of 0.28 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 86.25-158.23, average daily share volume of 3.2M, a public-listing history dating back to 2009, approximately 194K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how DG stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.28 indicates DG has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. DG 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 DG?
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 DG snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $103.09, ATM IV 55.25%, IV rank 100.00%, expected move 15.84%. The cash-secured put on DG 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 28-day expiry.
Why this cash-secured put structure on DG specifically: DG IV at 55.25% is rich versus its 1-year range, which favors premium-selling structures like a DG cash-secured put, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 15.84% (roughly $16.33 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 DG expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on DG should anchor to the underlying notional of $103.09 per share and to the trader's directional view on DG stock.
DG cash-secured put setup
The DG 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 DG near $103.09, the first option leg uses a $98.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed DG 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 DG shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $98.00 | $3.98 |
DG cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$397.50
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $397.50
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$9,401.50
- Breakeven(s)
- $94.03
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.042
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
DG cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on DG. 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% | -$9,401.50 |
| $22.80 | -77.9% | -$7,122.23 |
| $45.60 | -55.8% | -$4,842.97 |
| $68.39 | -33.7% | -$2,563.70 |
| $91.18 | -11.6% | -$284.43 |
| $113.97 | +10.6% | +$397.50 |
| $136.77 | +32.7% | +$397.50 |
| $159.56 | +54.8% | +$397.50 |
| $182.35 | +76.9% | +$397.50 |
| $205.14 | +99.0% | +$397.50 |
When traders use cash-secured put on DG
Cash-secured puts on DG earn premium while a trader waits to acquire DG stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning DG.
DG thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for DG extends from approximately $86.76 on the downside to $119.42 on the upside. A DG cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire DG 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 DG IV rank near 100.00% sits in the upper third of its 1-year distribution, which historically reverts; this raises the bar for premium-buying structures and lowers it for premium-selling structures on DG at 55.25%. As a Consumer Defensive name, DG options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to DG-specific events.
DG 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. DG positions also carry Consumer Defensive sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move DG alongside the broader basket even when DG-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on DG carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical DG earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current DG chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on DG?
- A cash-secured put on DG is the cash-secured put strategy applied to DG (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 DG stock trading near $103.09, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed DG chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are DG 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 DG cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 55.25%), the computed maximum profit is $397.50 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$9,401.50 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a DG cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the DG cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $94.03 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 DG market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 15.84%; 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 DG?
- Cash-secured puts on DG earn premium while a trader waits to acquire DG stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning DG.
- How does current DG implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- DG ATM IV is at 55.25% with IV rank near 100.00%, which is elevated relative to its 1-year range. Premium-selling structures (covered call, cash-secured put, iron condor) generally look more attractive when IV rank is high; premium-buying structures (long call, long put, debit spreads) are more expensive in that regime.