USLM Collar Strategy
USLM (United States Lime & Minerals, Inc.), in the Basic Materials sector, (Construction Materials industry), listed on NASDAQ.
United States Lime & Minerals, Inc. manufactures and supplies lime and limestone products in the United States. It extracts limestone from open-pit quarries and an underground mine, and processes it as pulverized limestone, quicklime, hydrated lime, and lime slurry. The company supplies its products primarily to the construction customers, including highway, road, and building contractors; industrial customers, such as paper and glass manufacturers; environmental customers comprising municipal sanitation and water treatment facilities, and flue gas treatment processes; steel producers; oil and gas services companies; roof shingle manufacturers; and poultry and cattle feed producers. It also has various royalty interests and non-operating working interests with respect to oil and gas rights in natural gas wells located in Johnson County, Texas in the Barnett Shale Formation. The company was incorporated 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 $3.14B, a trailing P/E of 23.98, a beta of 0.70 versus the broader market, a 52-week range of 94.02-141.44, average daily share volume of 135K, 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 collar on USLM?
A collar pairs long stock with a protective out-of-the-money put financed by a short out-of-the-money call, capping both tails of the position around the current spot.
Current USLM snapshot
As of May 15, 2026, spot at $103.67, ATM IV 43.10%, IV rank 5.85%, expected move 12.36%. The collar 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 34-day expiry.
Why this collar structure on USLM specifically: IV regime affects collar pricing on both sides; compressed USLM IV at 43.10% typically pushes the short call premium to roughly offset the long put cost, with a market-implied 1-standard-deviation move of approximately 12.36% (roughly $12.81 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 USLM expiries trade a higher absolute premium for lower per-day decay. Position sizing on USLM should anchor to the underlying notional of $103.67 per share and to the trader's directional view on USLM stock.
USLM collar setup
The USLM collar 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 $103.67, the first option leg uses a $110.00 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 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 USLM shares for the stock leg in covered calls and collars).
| Action | Type | Strike / Basis | Premium (est) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy 100 shares | Stock | $103.67 | long |
| Sell 1 | Call | $110.00 | $3.40 |
| Buy 1 | Put | $100.00 | $3.40 |
USLM collar risk and reward
- Net Premium / Debit
- -$10,367.00
- Max Profit (per contract)
- $633.00
- Max Loss (per contract)
- -$367.00
- Breakeven(s)
- $103.67
- Risk / Reward Ratio
- 1.725
Max profit roughly equals short-call strike minus cost basis plus net premium; max loss roughly equals cost basis minus long-put strike minus net premium. Breakeven shifts by the net premium.
USLM collar payoff curve
Modeled P&L at expiration across a range of underlying prices for the collar 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% | -$367.00 |
| $22.93 | -77.9% | -$367.00 |
| $45.85 | -55.8% | -$367.00 |
| $68.77 | -33.7% | -$367.00 |
| $91.69 | -11.6% | -$367.00 |
| $114.61 | +10.6% | +$633.00 |
| $137.54 | +32.7% | +$633.00 |
| $160.46 | +54.8% | +$633.00 |
| $183.38 | +76.9% | +$633.00 |
| $206.30 | +99.0% | +$633.00 |
When traders use collar on USLM
Collars on USLM hedge an existing long USLM stock position; the long put sets a floor while the short call finances it, often run as a near-zero-cost hedge during expected volatility windows.
USLM thesis for this collar
The market-implied 1-standard-deviation range for USLM extends from approximately $90.86 on the downside to $116.48 on the upside. A USLM collar hedges an existing long USLM position with a protective put while financing the put cost via a short call; when the premiums roughly offset, the collar acts as a near-zero-cost insurance band around the current spot. Current USLM IV rank near 5.85% 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 43.10%. 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 collar positions are structurally neutral (protective); 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. Always rebuild the position from current USLM chain quotes before placing a trade.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a collar on USLM?
- A collar on USLM is the collar strategy applied to USLM (stock). The strategy is structurally neutral (protective): A collar pairs long stock with a protective out-of-the-money put financed by a short out-of-the-money call, capping both tails of the position around the current spot. With USLM stock trading near $103.67, 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 collar max profit and max loss calculated?
- Max profit roughly equals short-call strike minus cost basis plus net premium; max loss roughly equals cost basis minus long-put strike minus net premium. Breakeven shifts by the net premium. For the USLM collar priced from the end-of-day chain at a 30-day expiry (ATM IV 43.10%), the computed maximum profit is $633.00 per contract and the computed maximum loss is -$367.00 per contract. Live intraday quotes will differ as the chain moves through the trading session.
- What is the breakeven for a USLM collar?
- The breakeven for the USLM collar priced on this page is roughly $103.67 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 12.36%; if the move sits well outside the breakeven distance, the structure's risk-reward becomes correspondingly tighter.
- When should you consider a collar on USLM?
- Collars on USLM hedge an existing long USLM stock position; the long put sets a floor while the short call finances it, often run as a near-zero-cost hedge during expected volatility windows.
- How does current USLM implied volatility affect this collar?
- USLM ATM IV is at 43.10% with IV rank near 5.85%, 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.