UAN Cash-Secured Put Strategy
UAN (CVR Partners, LP), in the Basic Materials sector, (Agricultural Inputs industry), listed on NYSE.
CVR Partners, LP, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production and sale of nitrogen fertilizer products in the United States. The company offers ammonia products for agricultural and industrial customers; and urea and ammonium nitrate products to agricultural customers, as well as retailers and distributors. CVR GP, LLC serves as the general partner of the company. CVR Partners, LP was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas.
UAN (CVR Partners, LP) trades in the Basic Materials sector, specifically Agricultural Inputs, with a market capitalization of approximately $1.38B, a trailing P/E of 11.36, a beta of 0.31 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 80.01-139.5, average daily share volume of 98K, a public-listing history dating back to 2011, approximately 316 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how UAN stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.31 indicates UAN 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 11.36 is on the value side, where IV often compresses outside event windows because forward growth expectations are already discounted into the share price. UAN 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 UAN?
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 UAN snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $129.28, ATM IV 49.00%, IV rank 16.78%, expected move 14.05%. The cash-secured put on UAN 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 UAN specifically: UAN IV at 49.00% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling UAN cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 14.05% (roughly $18.16 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 UAN expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on UAN should anchor to the underlying notional of $129.28 per share and to the trader's directional view on UAN stock.
UAN cash-secured put setup
The UAN 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 UAN near $129.28, the first option leg uses a $125.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed UAN 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 UAN shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $125.00 | $5.30 |
UAN cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$530.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $530.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$11,969.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $119.70
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.044
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
UAN cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on UAN. 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% | -$11,969.00 |
| $28.59 | -77.9% | -$9,110.66 |
| $57.18 | -55.8% | -$6,252.32 |
| $85.76 | -33.7% | -$3,393.97 |
| $114.34 | -11.6% | -$535.63 |
| $142.93 | +10.6% | +$530.00 |
| $171.51 | +32.7% | +$530.00 |
| $200.09 | +54.8% | +$530.00 |
| $228.68 | +76.9% | +$530.00 |
| $257.26 | +99.0% | +$530.00 |
When traders use cash-secured put on UAN
Cash-secured puts on UAN earn premium while a trader waits to acquire UAN stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning UAN.
UAN thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for UAN extends from approximately $111.12 on the downside to $147.44 on the upside. A UAN cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire UAN 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 UAN IV rank near 16.78% 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 UAN at 49.00%. As a Basic Materials name, UAN options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to UAN-specific events.
UAN 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. UAN positions also carry Basic Materials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move UAN alongside the broader basket even when UAN-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on UAN carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical UAN earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current UAN chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on UAN?
- A cash-secured put on UAN is the cash-secured put strategy applied to UAN (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 UAN stock trading near $129.28, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed UAN chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are UAN 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 UAN cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 49.00%), the computed maximum profit is $530.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$11,969.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a UAN cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the UAN cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $119.70 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 UAN market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 14.05%; 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 UAN?
- Cash-secured puts on UAN earn premium while a trader waits to acquire UAN stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning UAN.
- How does current UAN implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- UAN ATM IV is at 49.00% with IV rank near 16.78%, 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.