MKTX Cash-Secured Put Strategy
MKTX (MarketAxess Holdings Inc.), in the Financial Services sector, (Financial - Capital Markets industry), listed on NASDAQ.
MarketAxess Holdings Inc. develops and operates a premier electronic trading platform, serving institutional investors and broker-dealers globally. This platform provides essential access to deep liquidity across a broad spectrum of fixed-income assets, including U.S. investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds, U.S. Treasuries, municipal bonds, emerging market debt, and Eurobonds, among other debt securities. Through its innovative Open Trading protocols, the company facilitates anonymous, "all-to-all" corporate bond transactions between its diverse client base. Beyond its core trading capabilities, MarketAxess offers a comprehensive array of value-added products and services. These include Composite+ pricing and other sophisticated market data tools designed to inform trading strategies, as well as auto-execution and custom workflow solutions.
MKTX (MarketAxess Holdings Inc.) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Financial - Capital Markets, with a market capitalization of approximately $4.00B, a trailing P/E of 12.84, a beta of 0.85 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 108.75-225.07, average daily share volume of 616K, a public-listing history dating back to 2004, approximately 891 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how MKTX stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.85 places MKTX roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. MKTX 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 MKTX?
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 MKTX snapshot
As of June 29, 2026, spot at $109.91, ATM IV 39.40%, IV rank 55.01%, expected move 11.30%. The cash-secured put on MKTX 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 18-day expiry.
Why this cash-secured put structure on MKTX specifically: MKTX IV at 39.40% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so the credit collected on a MKTX cash-secured put sits in line with its long-run distribution, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 11.30% (roughly $12.41 on the underlying). The 18-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated MKTX expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on MKTX should anchor to the underlying notional of $109.91 per share and to the trader's directional view on MKTX stock.
MKTX cash-secured put setup
The MKTX 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 MKTX near $109.91, the first option leg uses a $105.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed MKTX chain at a 18-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 MKTX shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $105.00 | $2.10 |
MKTX cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$210.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $210.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$10,289.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $102.90
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.020
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
MKTX cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on MKTX. 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% | -$10,289.00 |
| $24.31 | -77.9% | -$7,858.94 |
| $48.61 | -55.8% | -$5,428.88 |
| $72.91 | -33.7% | -$2,998.82 |
| $97.21 | -11.6% | -$568.76 |
| $121.51 | +10.6% | +$210.00 |
| $145.81 | +32.7% | +$210.00 |
| $170.11 | +54.8% | +$210.00 |
| $194.41 | +76.9% | +$210.00 |
| $218.72 | +99.0% | +$210.00 |
When traders use cash-secured put on MKTX
Cash-secured puts on MKTX earn premium while a trader waits to acquire MKTX stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning MKTX.
MKTX thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for MKTX extends from approximately $97.50 on the downside to $122.32 on the upside. A MKTX cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire MKTX 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 MKTX IV rank near 55.01% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the cash-secured put thesis on MKTX should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Financial Services name, MKTX options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to MKTX-specific events.
MKTX 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. MKTX positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move MKTX alongside the broader basket even when MKTX-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on MKTX carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical MKTX earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current MKTX chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on MKTX?
- A cash-secured put on MKTX is the cash-secured put strategy applied to MKTX (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 MKTX stock trading near $109.91, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed MKTX chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are MKTX 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 MKTX cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 39.40%), the computed maximum profit is $210.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$10,289.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a MKTX cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the MKTX cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $102.90 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 MKTX market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 11.30%; 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 MKTX?
- Cash-secured puts on MKTX earn premium while a trader waits to acquire MKTX stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning MKTX.
- How does current MKTX implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- MKTX ATM IV is at 39.40% with IV rank near 55.01%, 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.