PGR Cash-Secured Put Strategy
PGR (The Progressive Corporation), in the Financial Services sector, (Insurance - Property & Casualty industry), listed on NYSE.
The Progressive Corporation, an insurance holding company, provides personal and commercial auto, personal residential and commercial property, general liability, and other specialty property-casualty insurance products and related services in the United States. It operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property. The Personal Lines segment writes insurance for personal autos and recreational vehicles (RV). This segment's products include personal auto insurance; and special lines products, including insurance for motorcycles, ATVs, RVs, watercrafts, snowmobiles, and related products. The Commercial Lines segment provides auto-related primary liability and physical damage insurance, and business-related general liability and property insurance for autos, vans, pick-up trucks, and dump trucks used by small businesses; tractors, trailers, and straight trucks primarily used by regional general freight and expeditor-type businesses, and long-haul operators; dump trucks, log trucks, and garbage trucks used by dirt, sand and gravel, logging, and coal-type businesses; and tow trucks and wreckers used in towing services and gas/service station businesses; as well as non-fleet and airport taxis, and black-car services. The Property segment writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, and renters, as well as offers personal umbrella insurance, and primary and excess flood insurance.
PGR (The Progressive Corporation) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Insurance - Property & Casualty, with a market capitalization of approximately $114.51B, a trailing P/E of 9.93, a beta of 0.30 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 191.75-289.96, average daily share volume of 2.9M, a public-listing history dating back to 1980, approximately 66K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how PGR stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.30 indicates PGR has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. The trailing P/E of 9.93 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price. PGR 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 PGR?
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 PGR snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $199.97, ATM IV 25.28%, IV rank 53.43%, expected move 7.25%. The cash-secured put on PGR 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 PGR specifically: PGR IV at 25.28% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so the credit collected on a PGR cash-secured put sits in line with its long-run distribution, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 7.25% (roughly $14.49 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 PGR expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on PGR should anchor to the underlying notional of $199.97 per share and to the trader's directional view on PGR stock.
PGR cash-secured put setup
The PGR 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 PGR near $199.97, the first option leg uses a $190.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed PGR 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 PGR shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $190.00 | $2.05 |
PGR cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$205.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $205.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$18,794.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $187.95
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.011
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
PGR cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on PGR. 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% | -$18,794.00 |
| $44.22 | -77.9% | -$14,372.66 |
| $88.44 | -55.8% | -$9,951.33 |
| $132.65 | -33.7% | -$5,529.99 |
| $176.86 | -11.6% | -$1,108.65 |
| $221.08 | +10.6% | +$205.00 |
| $265.29 | +32.7% | +$205.00 |
| $309.50 | +54.8% | +$205.00 |
| $353.72 | +76.9% | +$205.00 |
| $397.93 | +99.0% | +$205.00 |
When traders use cash-secured put on PGR
Cash-secured puts on PGR earn premium while a trader waits to acquire PGR stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning PGR.
PGR thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for PGR extends from approximately $185.48 on the downside to $214.46 on the upside. A PGR cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire PGR 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 PGR IV rank near 53.43% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the cash-secured put thesis on PGR should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Financial Services name, PGR options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to PGR-specific events.
PGR 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. PGR positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move PGR alongside the broader basket even when PGR-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on PGR carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical PGR earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current PGR chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on PGR?
- A cash-secured put on PGR is the cash-secured put strategy applied to PGR (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 PGR stock trading near $199.97, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed PGR chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are PGR 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 PGR cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 25.28%), the computed maximum profit is $205.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$18,794.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a PGR cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the PGR cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $187.95 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 PGR market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 7.25%; 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 PGR?
- Cash-secured puts on PGR earn premium while a trader waits to acquire PGR stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning PGR.
- How does current PGR implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- PGR ATM IV is at 25.28% with IV rank near 53.43%, 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.