USAC Cash-Secured Put Strategy
USAC (USA Compression Partners, LP), in the Energy sector, (Oil & Gas Equipment & Services industry), listed on NYSE.
USA Compression Partners, LP, a growth-oriented Delaware limited partnership that provides natural gas compression services in terms of total compression fleet horsepower. The company offers compression services to oil companies and independent producers, processors, gatherers, and transporters of natural gas and crude oil, as well as operates stations. It primarily focuses on providing natural gas compression services to infrastructure applications, including centralized natural gas gathering systems and processing facilities. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.
USAC (USA Compression Partners, LP) trades in the Energy sector, specifically Oil & Gas Equipment & Services, with a market capitalization of approximately $3.47B, a trailing P/E of 31.73, a beta of 0.18 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 21.85-29.5, average daily share volume of 209K, a public-listing history dating back to 2013, approximately 854 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how USAC stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.18 indicates USAC has historically moved less than the broader market, dampening realized volatility and producing tighter expected-move bands per unit of dollar exposure. USAC 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 USAC?
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 USAC snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $29.91, ATM IV 28.00%, IV rank 5.92%, expected move 8.03%. The cash-secured put on USAC 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 USAC specifically: USAC IV at 28.00% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling USAC cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 8.03% (roughly $2.40 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 USAC expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on USAC should anchor to the underlying notional of $29.91 per share and to the trader's directional view on USAC stock.
USAC cash-secured put setup
The USAC 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 USAC near $29.91, the first option leg uses a $28.41 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed USAC 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 USAC shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $28.41 | N/A |
USAC 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.
USAC cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on USAC. 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 USAC
Cash-secured puts on USAC earn premium while a trader waits to acquire USAC stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning USAC.
USAC thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for USAC extends from approximately $27.51 on the downside to $32.31 on the upside. A USAC cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire USAC 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 USAC IV rank near 5.92% 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 USAC at 28.00%. As a Energy name, USAC options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to USAC-specific events.
USAC 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. USAC positions also carry Energy sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move USAC alongside the broader basket even when USAC-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on USAC carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical USAC earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current USAC chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on USAC?
- A cash-secured put on USAC is the cash-secured put strategy applied to USAC (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 USAC stock trading near $29.91, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed USAC chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are USAC 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 USAC cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 28.00%), 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 USAC cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the USAC 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 USAC market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 8.03%; 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 USAC?
- Cash-secured puts on USAC earn premium while a trader waits to acquire USAC stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning USAC.
- How does current USAC implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- USAC ATM IV is at 28.00% with IV rank near 5.92%, 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.