HE Cash-Secured Put Strategy
HE (Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc.), in the Utilities sector, (Diversified Utilities industry), listed on NYSE.
Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the electric utility, banking, and renewable/sustainable infrastructure investment businesses in the state of Hawaii. It operates in three segments: Electric Utility, Bank, and Other. The Electric Utility segment engages in the production, purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity in the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, Lanai, and Molokai. Its renewable energy sources and potential sources include wind, solar, photovoltaic, geothermal, wave, hydroelectric, municipal waste, and other biofuels. This segment serves suburban communities, resorts, the United States armed forces installations, and agricultural operations. The Bank segment operates a community bank that offers banking and other financial services to consumers and businesses, including savings and checking accounts; and loans comprising residential and commercial real estate, residential mortgage, construction and development, multifamily residential and commercial real estate, consumer, and commercial loans.
HE (Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc.) trades in the Utilities sector, specifically Diversified Utilities, with a market capitalization of approximately $2.31B, a trailing P/E of 17.84, a beta of 0.56 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 10.14-17.38, average daily share volume of 2.5M, a public-listing history dating back to 1964, approximately 3K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how HE stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.56 indicates HE has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure.
What is a cash-secured put on HE?
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 HE snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $13.25, ATM IV 37.90%, IV rank 5.93%, expected move 10.87%. The cash-secured put on HE 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 34-day expiry.
Why this cash-secured put structure on HE specifically: HE IV at 37.90% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling HE cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 10.87% (roughly $1.44 on the underlying). The 34-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated HE expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on HE should anchor to the underlying notional of $13.25 per share and to the trader's directional view on HE stock.
HE cash-secured put setup
The HE 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 HE near $13.25, the first option leg uses a $12.59 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed HE chain at a 34-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 HE shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $12.59 | N/A |
HE 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.
HE cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on HE. 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 HE
Cash-secured puts on HE earn premium while a trader waits to acquire HE stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning HE.
HE thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for HE extends from approximately $11.81 on the downside to $14.69 on the upside. A HE cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire HE 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 HE IV rank near 5.93% 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 HE at 37.90%. As a Utilities name, HE options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to HE-specific events.
HE 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. HE positions also carry Utilities sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move HE alongside the broader basket even when HE-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on HE carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical HE earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current HE chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on HE?
- A cash-secured put on HE is the cash-secured put strategy applied to HE (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 HE stock trading near $13.25, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed HE chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are HE 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 HE cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 37.90%), 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 HE cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the HE 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 HE market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 10.87%; 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 HE?
- Cash-secured puts on HE earn premium while a trader waits to acquire HE stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning HE.
- How does current HE implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- HE ATM IV is at 37.90% with IV rank near 5.93%, 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.