NLY Cash-Secured Put Strategy
NLY (Annaly Capital Management, Inc.), in the Real Estate sector, (REIT - Mortgage industry), listed on NYSE.
Annaly Capital Management, Inc., a diversified capital manager, engages in mortgage finance and corporate middle market lending. The company invests in agency mortgage-backed securities, mortgage servicing rights, Agency commercial mortgage-backed securities, non-Agency residential mortgage assets, residential mortgage loans, credit risk transfer securities, corporate debts, and other commercial real estate investments. It has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT). As a REIT, it is not subject to federal income tax to the extent that it distributes its taxable income to its shareholders. The company was founded in 1996 and is based in New York, New York.
NLY (Annaly Capital Management, Inc.) trades in the Real Estate sector, specifically REIT - Mortgage, with a market capitalization of approximately $16.24B, a trailing P/E of 7.33, a beta of 1.27 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 18.43-24.52, average daily share volume of 7.1M, a public-listing history dating back to 1997, approximately 191 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how NLY stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.27 places NLY roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. The trailing P/E of 7.33 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price. NLY 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 NLY?
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 NLY snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $21.66, ATM IV 20.05%, IV rank 18.29%, expected move 5.75%. The cash-secured put on NLY 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 NLY specifically: NLY IV at 20.05% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling NLY cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 5.75% (roughly $1.24 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 NLY expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on NLY should anchor to the underlying notional of $21.66 per share and to the trader's directional view on NLY stock.
NLY cash-secured put setup
The NLY 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 NLY near $21.66, the first option leg uses a $20.50 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed NLY 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 NLY shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $20.50 | $0.20 |
NLY cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$19.50
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $19.50
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$2,029.50
- Breakeven(s)
- $20.31
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.010
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
NLY cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on NLY. 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% | -$2,029.50 |
| $4.80 | -77.8% | -$1,550.70 |
| $9.59 | -55.7% | -$1,071.89 |
| $14.37 | -33.6% | -$593.09 |
| $19.16 | -11.5% | -$114.28 |
| $23.95 | +10.6% | +$19.50 |
| $28.74 | +32.7% | +$19.50 |
| $33.53 | +54.8% | +$19.50 |
| $38.31 | +76.9% | +$19.50 |
| $43.10 | +99.0% | +$19.50 |
When traders use cash-secured put on NLY
Cash-secured puts on NLY earn premium while a trader waits to acquire NLY stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning NLY.
NLY thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for NLY extends from approximately $20.42 on the downside to $22.90 on the upside. A NLY cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire NLY 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 NLY IV rank near 18.29% 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 NLY at 20.05%. As a Real Estate name, NLY options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to NLY-specific events.
NLY 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. NLY positions also carry Real Estate sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move NLY alongside the broader basket even when NLY-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on NLY carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical NLY earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current NLY chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on NLY?
- A cash-secured put on NLY is the cash-secured put strategy applied to NLY (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 NLY stock trading near $21.66, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed NLY chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are NLY 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 NLY cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 20.05%), the computed maximum profit is $19.50 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$2,029.50 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a NLY cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the NLY cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $20.31 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 NLY market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 5.75%; 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 NLY?
- Cash-secured puts on NLY earn premium while a trader waits to acquire NLY stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning NLY.
- How does current NLY implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- NLY ATM IV is at 20.05% with IV rank near 18.29%, 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.