UNH Cash-Secured Put Strategy
UNH (UnitedHealth Group Incorporated), in the Healthcare sector, (Medical - Healthcare Plans industry), listed on NYSE.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated operates as a diversified health care company in the United States. It operates through four segments: UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. The UnitedHealthcare segment offers consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services for national employers, public sector employers, mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals; health care coverage and well-being services to individuals age 50 and older addressing their needs for preventive and acute health care services, as well as services dealing with chronic disease and other specialized issues for older individuals; Medicaid plans, children's health insurance and health care programs; health and dental benefits; and hospital and clinical services. The OptumHealth segment provides access to networks of care provider specialists, health management services, care delivery, consumer engagement, and financial services. This segment serves individuals directly through care delivery systems, employers, payers, and government entities. The OptumInsight segment offers software and information products, advisory consulting arrangements, and managed services outsourcing contracts to hospital systems, physicians, health plans, governments, life sciences companies, and other organizations.
UNH (UnitedHealth Group Incorporated) trades in the Healthcare sector, specifically Medical - Healthcare Plans, with a market capitalization of approximately $364.31B, a trailing P/E of 30.31, a beta of 0.65 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 234.6-404.15, average daily share volume of 8.5M, a public-listing history dating back to 1984, approximately 400K full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how UNH stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.65 indicates UNH has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. UNH 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 UNH?
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 UNH snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $391.49, ATM IV 27.65%, IV rank 5.18%, expected move 7.93%. The cash-secured put on UNH 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 UNH specifically: UNH IV at 27.65% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling UNH cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 7.93% (roughly $31.04 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 UNH expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on UNH should anchor to the underlying notional of $391.49 per share and to the trader's directional view on UNH stock.
UNH cash-secured put setup
The UNH 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 UNH near $391.49, the first option leg uses a $370.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed UNH 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 UNH shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $370.00 | $4.03 |
UNH cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$402.50
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $402.50
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$36,596.50
- Breakeven(s)
- $365.98
- 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.
UNH cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on UNH. 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% | -$36,596.50 |
| $86.57 | -77.9% | -$27,940.55 |
| $173.13 | -55.8% | -$19,284.60 |
| $259.69 | -33.7% | -$10,628.65 |
| $346.25 | -11.6% | -$1,972.70 |
| $432.81 | +10.6% | +$402.50 |
| $519.37 | +32.7% | +$402.50 |
| $605.93 | +54.8% | +$402.50 |
| $692.49 | +76.9% | +$402.50 |
| $779.05 | +99.0% | +$402.50 |
When traders use cash-secured put on UNH
Cash-secured puts on UNH earn premium while a trader waits to acquire UNH stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning UNH.
UNH thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for UNH extends from approximately $360.45 on the downside to $422.53 on the upside. A UNH cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire UNH 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 UNH IV rank near 5.18% 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 UNH at 27.65%. As a Healthcare name, UNH options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to UNH-specific events.
UNH 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. UNH positions also carry Healthcare sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move UNH alongside the broader basket even when UNH-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on UNH carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical UNH earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current UNH chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on UNH?
- A cash-secured put on UNH is the cash-secured put strategy applied to UNH (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 UNH stock trading near $391.49, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed UNH chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are UNH 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 UNH cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 27.65%), the computed maximum profit is $402.50 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$36,596.50 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a UNH cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the UNH cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $365.98 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 UNH market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 7.93%; 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 UNH?
- Cash-secured puts on UNH earn premium while a trader waits to acquire UNH stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning UNH.
- How does current UNH implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- UNH ATM IV is at 27.65% with IV rank near 5.18%, 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.