LDOS Cash-Secured Put Strategy
LDOS (Leidos Holdings, Inc.), in the Technology sector, (Information Technology Services industry), listed on NYSE.
Leidos Holdings, Inc., along with its various subsidiaries, delivers a broad spectrum of services and innovative solutions across key markets: defense, intelligence, civil government, and health. The company operates both domestically within the United States and on an international scale. Its operations are organized into three principal divisions: Defense Solutions, Civil, and Health. The Defense Solutions segment is dedicated to providing national security systems and specialized support spanning air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace domains. Its extensive client base includes the U.S. Intelligence Community, the Department of Defense, NASA, various military branches, allied foreign governments, and other federal and commercial entities within the national security sector.
LDOS (Leidos Holdings, Inc.) trades in the Technology sector, specifically Information Technology Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $18.09B, a trailing P/E of 13.08, a beta of 0.55 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 98.86-205.77, average daily share volume of 1.5M, a public-listing history dating back to 2006, approximately 50K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how LDOS stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.55 indicates LDOS has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. LDOS 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 LDOS?
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.
LDOS snapshot
As of August 14, 2026, spot at $143.39, ATM IV 30.70%, IV rank 36.45%, expected move 8.80%. The cash-secured put on LDOS 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 35-day expiry.
Why this cash-secured put structure on LDOS specifically: LDOS IV at 30.70% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so the credit collected on a LDOS cash-secured put sits in line with its long-run distribution, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 8.80% (roughly $12.62 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 LDOS expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on LDOS should anchor to the underlying notional of $143.39 per share and to the trader's directional view on LDOS stock.
LDOS cash-secured put setup
The LDOS cash-secured put 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 LDOS at $143.39 on that close, the first option leg uses a $135.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed LDOS 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 LDOS shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $135.00 | $2.30 |
LDOS cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$230.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $230.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$13,269.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $132.70
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.017
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
LDOS cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on LDOS. 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% | -$13,269.00 |
| $31.71 | -77.9% | -$10,098.68 |
| $63.42 | -55.8% | -$6,928.36 |
| $95.12 | -33.7% | -$3,758.04 |
| $126.82 | -11.6% | -$587.71 |
| $158.53 | +10.6% | +$230.00 |
| $190.23 | +32.7% | +$230.00 |
| $221.93 | +54.8% | +$230.00 |
| $253.64 | +76.9% | +$230.00 |
| $285.34 | +99.0% | +$230.00 |
When traders use cash-secured put on LDOS
Cash-secured puts on LDOS earn premium while a trader waits to acquire LDOS stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning LDOS.
LDOS thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for LDOS extends from approximately $130.77 on the downside to $156.01 on the upside. A LDOS cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire LDOS 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 LDOS IV rank near 36.45% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the cash-secured put thesis on LDOS should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Technology name, LDOS options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to LDOS-specific events.
LDOS 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. LDOS positions also carry Technology sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move LDOS alongside the broader basket even when LDOS-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on LDOS carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical LDOS earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current LDOS chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on LDOS?
- A cash-secured put on LDOS is the cash-secured put strategy applied to LDOS (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 LDOS stock at $143.39 on the August 14, 2026 close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed LDOS chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
- How are LDOS 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 LDOS cash-secured put priced from the August 14, 2026 end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 30.70%), the computed maximum profit is $230.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$13,269.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a LDOS cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the LDOS cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $132.70 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 LDOS market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 8.80%; 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 LDOS?
- Cash-secured puts on LDOS earn premium while a trader waits to acquire LDOS stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning LDOS.
- How does current LDOS implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- LDOS ATM IV is at 30.70% with IV rank near 36.45%, which is mid-range against its 1-year history. Strategy selection depends more on directional thesis and expected move than on a strong IV signal.