MED Cash-Secured Put Strategy
MED (Medifast, Inc.), in the Industrials sector, (Personal Products & Services industry), listed on NYSE.
Medifast, Inc., through its various divisions, develops and provides a range of consumable health and nutritional items tailored for weight loss, weight management, and general wellness. These products are distributed across the United States and the Asia-Pacific region. Their extensive portfolio encompasses snack bars, savory bites, cereals, drinks, substantial meal choices, oatmeal, pancakes, puddings, soft serves, shakes, smoothies, baked goods, and soups. These offerings are marketed under proprietary brands like OPTAVIA, Optimal Health by Take Shape for Life, and Flavors of Home. The company facilitates sales primarily through direct e-commerce transactions. Established in 1980, Medifast, Inc. maintains its corporate headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland.
MED (Medifast, Inc.) trades in the Industrials sector, specifically Personal Products & Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $128.9M, a beta of 0.70 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 9.22-14.67, average daily share volume of 224K, a public-listing history dating back to 1993, approximately 380 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how MED stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.70 indicates MED has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. MED 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 MED?
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.
MED snapshot
As of August 14, 2026, spot at $11.48, ATM IV 170.70%, IV rank 35.17%, expected move 10.71%. The cash-secured put on MED below is built from the 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 MED specifically: MED IV at 170.70% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so the credit collected on a MED cash-secured put sits in line with its long-run distribution, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 10.71% (roughly $1.23 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 MED expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on MED should anchor to the underlying notional of $11.48 per share and to the trader's directional view on MED stock.
MED cash-secured put setup
The MED 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 MED at $11.48 on that close, the first option leg uses a $10.91 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed MED 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 MED shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $10.91 | N/A |
MED 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.
MED cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on MED. 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 MED
Cash-secured puts on MED earn premium while a trader waits to acquire MED stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning MED.
MED thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for MED extends from approximately $10.25 on the downside to $12.71 on the upside. A MED cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire MED 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 MED IV rank near 35.17% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the cash-secured put thesis on MED should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Industrials name, MED options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to MED-specific events.
MED 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. MED positions also carry Industrials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move MED alongside the broader basket even when MED-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on MED carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical MED earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current MED chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on MED?
- A cash-secured put on MED is the cash-secured put strategy applied to MED (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 MED stock at $11.48 on the most recent close, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed MED chain strike and the premiums come straight from that session's bid/ask midpoint.
- How are MED 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 MED cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 170.70%), 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 MED cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the MED cash-secured put priced on this page is no defined breakeven on the modeled curve at expiration, derived from the 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 MED market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move in the same options snapshot is approximately 10.71%; 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 MED?
- Cash-secured puts on MED earn premium while a trader waits to acquire MED stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning MED.
- How does current MED implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- MED ATM IV is at 170.70% with IV rank near 35.17%, 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.