SF Cash-Secured Put Strategy
SF (Stifel Financial Corp.), in the Financial Services sector, (Financial - Capital Markets industry), listed on NYSE.
Stifel Financial Corp., a financial services and bank holding company, provides retail and institutional wealth management, and investment banking services to individual investors, corporations, municipalities, and institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe, and Canada. It operates in three segments: Global Wealth Management, Institutional Group, and Other. The company provides private client services, including securities transaction and financial planning services; institutional equity and fixed income sales, trading and research, and municipal finance services; investment banking services, such as mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, and private placements; and retail and commercial banking services comprising personal and commercial lending programs, as well as deposit accounts. It also participates in and manages underwritings for corporate and public finance; and offers financial advisory and securities brokerage services. The company was founded in 1890 and is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.
SF (Stifel Financial Corp.) trades in the Financial Services sector, specifically Financial - Capital Markets, with a market capitalization of approximately $11.45B, a trailing P/E of 8.68, a beta of 1.06 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 60.62-89.82667, average daily share volume of 1.5M, a public-listing history dating back to 1983, approximately 9K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how SF stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 1.06 places SF roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. The trailing P/E of 8.68 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price. SF 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 SF?
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 SF snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $74.40, ATM IV 30.90%, IV rank 41.41%, expected move 8.86%. The cash-secured put on SF 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 34-day expiry.
Why this cash-secured put structure on SF specifically: SF IV at 30.90% is mid-range versus its 1-year history, so the credit collected on a SF cash-secured put sits in line with its long-run distribution, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 8.86% (roughly $6.59 on the underlying). The 34-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated SF expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on SF should anchor to the underlying notional of $74.40 per share and to the trader's directional view on SF stock.
SF cash-secured put setup
The SF 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 SF near $74.40, the first option leg uses a $70.68 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed SF chain at a 34-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 SF shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $70.68 | N/A |
SF 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.
SF cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on SF. 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 SF
Cash-secured puts on SF earn premium while a trader waits to acquire SF stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning SF.
SF thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for SF extends from approximately $67.81 on the downside to $80.99 on the upside. A SF cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire SF 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 SF IV rank near 41.41% is mid-range against its 1-year distribution, so the IV signal is neutral; the cash-secured put thesis on SF should anchor more to the directional view and the expected-move geometry. As a Financial Services name, SF options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to SF-specific events.
SF 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. SF positions also carry Financial Services sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move SF alongside the broader basket even when SF-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on SF carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical SF earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current SF chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on SF?
- A cash-secured put on SF is the cash-secured put strategy applied to SF (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 SF stock trading near $74.40, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed SF chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are SF 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 SF cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 30.90%), 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 SF cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the SF cash-secured put priced on this page is no defined breakeven on the modeled curve 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 SF market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 8.86%; 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 SF?
- Cash-secured puts on SF earn premium while a trader waits to acquire SF stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning SF.
- How does current SF implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- SF ATM IV is at 30.90% with IV rank near 41.41%, 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.