USAC Long 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 long put on USAC?
A long put buys downside exposure with a fixed maximum loss equal to the premium paid; profit accrues if the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration.
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 long 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 long put structure on USAC specifically: USAC IV at 28.00% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which favors premium-buying structures like a USAC long put, 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 long put setup
The USAC long 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 $29.91 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 1 | Put | $29.91 | N/A |
USAC long 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 the strike minus premium times 100 (reached at zero); max loss equals the premium times 100. Breakeven is strike minus premium.
USAC long put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the long 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 long put on USAC
Long puts on USAC hedge an existing long USAC stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying USAC exposure being hedged.
USAC thesis for this long 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 long put expresses a directional view that the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration, frequently sized to hedge an existing long USAC position with one put per 100 shares held. 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 long put positions are structurally bearish; 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. Long-premium structures like a long put on USAC are particularly exposed to IV-crush risk through scheduled events (earnings, FDA decisions, central-bank meetings) where IV typically contracts post-event regardless of the directional outcome. Always rebuild the position from current USAC chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a long put on USAC?
- A long put on USAC is the long put strategy applied to USAC (stock). The strategy is structurally bearish: A long put buys downside exposure with a fixed maximum loss equal to the premium paid; profit accrues if the underlying closes below the strike minus premium at expiration. 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 long put max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit equals the strike minus premium times 100 (reached at zero); max loss equals the premium times 100. Breakeven is strike minus premium. For the USAC long 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 long put?
- The breakeven for the USAC long 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 long put on USAC?
- Long puts on USAC hedge an existing long USAC stock position or express a bearish view with defined risk; position sizing typically scales the put notional to the underlying USAC exposure being hedged.
- How does current USAC implied volatility affect this long 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.