USLM Cash-Secured Put Strategy
USLM (United States Lime & Minerals, Inc.), in the Basic Materials sector, (Construction Materials industry), listed on NASDAQ.
United States Lime & Minerals, Inc. (USLM) operates as a domestic producer and supplier of a diverse range of lime and limestone products. The company sources limestone through its open-pit quarries and an underground mine, subsequently processing it into various forms such as pulverized limestone, quicklime, hydrated lime, and lime slurry. These essential materials are distributed to a wide array of customers, including the construction sector (for roads, highways, and buildings), industrial clients (like paper and glass manufacturers), environmental applications (suchprising municipal sanitation, water treatment, and flue gas treatment), steel producers, oil and gas service companies, roof shingle manufacturers, and agricultural producers for poultry and cattle feed. Furthermore, USLM holds royalty and non-operating working interests in natural gas wells situated in the Barnett Shale Formation of Johnson County, Texas. The company was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
USLM (United States Lime & Minerals, Inc.) trades in the Basic Materials sector, specifically Construction Materials, with a market capitalization of approximately $3.05B, a trailing P/E of 23.32, a beta of 0.70 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 94.77-141.44, average daily share volume of 197K, a public-listing history dating back to 1980, approximately 345 full-time employees. These structural characteristics shape how USLM stock options price implied volatility around earnings windows, capital events, and macro-driven sector rotations.
A beta of 0.70 places USLM roughly in line with broader market moves, so the strategy payoff and realized volatility track the index-equivalent baseline. USLM 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 USLM?
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 USLM snapshot
As of June 30, 2026, spot at $102.97, ATM IV 43.40%, IV rank 5.97%, expected move 12.44%. The cash-secured put on USLM 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 17-day expiry.
Why this cash-secured put structure on USLM specifically: USLM IV at 43.40% is on the cheap side of its 1-year range, which means a premium-selling USLM cash-secured put collects less credit per unit of strike-width risk, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 12.44% (roughly $12.81 on the underlying). The 17-day window matched to the front-month expiry keeps theta exposure bounded while still capturing the post-snapshot move; longer-dated USLM expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on USLM should anchor to the underlying notional of $102.97 per share and to the trader's directional view on USLM stock.
USLM cash-secured put setup
The USLM 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 USLM near $102.97, the first option leg uses a $100.00 strike; additional legs (when the strategy has them) anchor to spot-relative offsets. Premiums come from the bid/ask midpoint on the listed USLM chain at a 17-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 USLM shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sell 1 | Put | $100.00 | $2.45 |
USLM cash-secured put risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- +$245.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $245.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$9,754.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $97.55
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 0.025
Max profit equals premium times 100; max loss equals strike minus premium times 100 (at zero, assuming assignment). Breakeven is strike minus premium.
USLM cash-secured put payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the cash-secured put on USLM. 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% | -$9,754.00 |
| $22.78 | -77.9% | -$7,477.39 |
| $45.54 | -55.8% | -$5,200.77 |
| $68.31 | -33.7% | -$2,924.16 |
| $91.07 | -11.6% | -$647.55 |
| $113.84 | +10.6% | +$245.00 |
| $136.61 | +32.7% | +$245.00 |
| $159.37 | +54.8% | +$245.00 |
| $182.14 | +76.9% | +$245.00 |
| $204.91 | +99.0% | +$245.00 |
When traders use cash-secured put on USLM
Cash-secured puts on USLM earn premium while a trader waits to acquire USLM stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning USLM.
USLM thesis for this cash-secured put
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for USLM extends from approximately $90.16 on the downside to $115.78 on the upside. A USLM cash-secured put lets a trader earn premium while waiting to acquire USLM 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 USLM IV rank near 5.97% 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 USLM at 43.40%. As a Basic Materials name, USLM options can move on sector-level news flow (peer earnings, regulatory updates, industry-specific macro data) in addition to USLM-specific events.
USLM 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. USLM positions also carry Basic Materials sector concentration risk; news flow inside the sector (peer earnings, regulatory shifts, supply-chain headlines) can move USLM alongside the broader basket even when USLM-specific fundamentals are unchanged. Short-premium structures like a cash-secured put on USLM carry tail risk when realized volatility exceeds the implied move; review historical USLM earnings reactions and macro stress periods before sizing. Always rebuild the position from current USLM chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a cash-secured put on USLM?
- A cash-secured put on USLM is the cash-secured put strategy applied to USLM (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 USLM stock trading near $102.97, the strikes shown on this page are snapped to the nearest listed USLM chain strike and the premiums come straight from the end-of-day bid/ask midpoint.
- How are USLM 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 USLM cash-secured put priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 43.40%), the computed maximum profit is $245.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$9,754.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a USLM cash-secured put?
- The breakeven for the USLM cash-secured put priced on this page is roughly $97.55 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 USLM market-implied 1-standard-deviation expected move is approximately 12.44%; 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 USLM?
- Cash-secured puts on USLM earn premium while a trader waits to acquire USLM stock at a target strike below the current quote; most attractive when IV is rich and the trader is comfortable owning USLM.
- How does current USLM implied volatility affect this cash-secured put?
- USLM ATM IV is at 43.40% with IV rank near 5.97%, 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.