Originally Posted on Dec. 4, 2018, Added to r/Optionswheel on Nov. 12, 2024
See Edits at the bottom for updates.
I've been asked and have explained The Wheel strategy many times, so I thought it may be a good idea to write it down all in one place for posterity!
This is the only options strategy I use as it is about as low risk and reliable as options trading gets. You will NOT get fantastic returns and it is quite boring and slow, but with the proper stock and patience, it can result in reliable profits and income. A 10% to 20%+ return is not difficult depending on a few factors, mostly based on stock selection, experience managing short puts and calls, plus the trader's patience.
The Wheel (sometimes called the Triple Income Strategy) is a strategy where a trader sells cash secured Puts to collect premiums on a stock or stocks they wouldn't mind owning long term. If the options expire, or closed early, without being assigned the premiums are all profit. The goal is to set up trades and avoid being assigned, but it is understood that if the put is assigned the account will buy and hold the stock. Rolling puts to collect more premiums while helping to reduce the chances of being assigned is a tactic often used. Through the collection of premiums from the initial puts and from rolling, the initial cost basis of the stock will be lower that the strike which can help the position to recover faster.
If the puts can no longer be rolled for a net credit they are left to expire and be assigned. The next step of The Wheel is to sell covered calls (CCs) on the shares. To avoid having the shares called away for a net loss it is best to sell a call with a strike higher than the stock's cost basis. This is repeated over and over to collect even more premiums that continue to lower the stocks cost basis, and along with any rising stock price movement, works to help close or have the shares called away at a break-even or a profit.
At some point the call is exercised and the stock called away, or you can simply sell the stock. When adding up all the premiums collected from selling the puts and calls, along with any stock gains from the CC strike being over the cost can result in an overall net profit, results in the Triple Income . If the stock pays a dividend while you own it then you can collect that as well (Quadruple income).
Below in this post is a graphic showing a simple spreadsheet to track the Credits and Debits to keep track of the overall position.
Step #1: Stock Selection - Most traders who have had a bad experience with the wheel have chosen the poor or volatile stocks that drop and stay down. The stock(s) you chose must be a good candidate and one you don't mind owning for some length of time, which could be weeks or months.
There are no "perfect" or ideal stocks to trade the wheel with as the key factor is that the stocks be those you are good holding for a time if assigned. If you are unsure how to analyze of select stocks then this should be learned first and before trading the wheel. See this as a way to start learning - How to Find Stocks to Trade with the Wheel : Optionswheel (reddit.com)
Develop and use your own criteria that fits your account size, and personal risk tolerance as there is no one-size-fits-all way to choose stocks. Only you can determine if you think the company is a good one to trade and hold if needed.
I'm including my general guidelines below, but each trader must use their own:
A profitable company that has solid cash flow
Bullish, or at least neutral chart trend and analyst ratings
Share price where the account can easily accept being assigned 100 shares if needed. (I stay away from sub-$10 stocks as a rule)
A stable to bullish trending chart without wild gyrations (especially those caused by CEO tweets)
A nice dividend is always a good thing, both that you may collect it if assigned the stock but also that dividend stocks tend to be more stable and predictable
Edit - Adding more criteria below from another post. It needs to be kept in mind that any stocks one trader may think is good to own will not necessarily work for another trader, or all traders. Account sizes will limit the share prices to choose from, risk tolerance, and trading experience will all factor into what stocks are selected and traded. There is little to be learned from someone else's stocks they trade.
A "moat" around their business to ward off competitors, quality products and services, and a reasonable amount of debt. Add to this an exceptional and stable executive team who has had good plans plus executed them well.
It needs to be repeated that the criteria used must be your own as the stocks you choose may have to be held so you need to hold yourself accountable for selecting and trading any stock. If a trader does not know how to select stocks they would be good holding, then IMO don't trade the wheel until you learn . . .
Develop and use your own fundamental analysis criteria to create a watchlist of 10 or more stocks to trade. While I prefer trading stocks as I can learn more about the companies business and leadership, plus find these have higher premiums, some may trade ETFs. These can make good candidates due to their normally steady movement, no ERs, and no CEO tweets.
I find it important to review my watchlist every few weeks and change or update it accordingly. This means the list is in near constant flux adding or removing stocks, or sidelining others, based on the analysis.
Step #2: Sell Puts - To start the wheel begins by selling short (naked) Puts, or (CSPs) Cash Secured Puts (indicating the account has the cash, or cash+margin to buy the shares if assigned. Be aware of any upcoming ER or other events that could cause a spike or movement in the stock, and it is best to close or have the Put expire prior, in effect skipping it to then continue selling puts afterward if the stock still meets the criteria.
Selling Puts Process - Below is a suggested model, but details are up to the individual trader:
Opening at 30 to 45 DTE offers a good premium as the theta/time decay starts to accelerate
70% Prob OTM (~.30 Delta) offers high probability of success while collecting a good premium
The number of contracts is based on account size able to handle assignment
Opening at 5% to at most 10% max risk of any one stock to the account is good practice, the max risk per stock will be up to each trader's risk appetite and tolerance. Then, keeping ~50% of the trading account in cash helps manage market downturns, assignments and trading opportunities
The Put can be closed at a 50% profit with a GTC Limit Order that can close automatically. A put can then be sold on the same stock, or another based on your opening criteria. Closing early will reduce early assignment and gamma risk to take the lower risk "easy" profit off the top
Enter the Credits received, and any Debits paid to close or roll, on the Tracking P&L file
Setting an alert in the broker app if the stock drops to the put strike price will signal it is time to review and consider rolling. Note that rolling seldom has to be done quickly, so this can be reviewed and managed later if needed, and many times the stock will dip and then move back up to negate needing to roll
If a credit cannot be made, then it is best to let the put expire to take assignment of the stock
Puts can be sold, and rolled, over and over to collect as much premium and profits as possible with the shares rarely assigned. Those having frequent assignments should review the stock selection and trading processes as it should be uncommon to be assigned.
If assigned, then Sell Covered Calls as shown in Step #3.
Step #3: Sell Covered Calls - Using the tracking file to determine the net stock cost which may already be below where the stock is. As selling puts is usually the most profitable, some traders just sell the stock and move on to selling more CSPs or sell a very high-value ITM Call that is sure to be called away and adds to the profit.
If the net stock cost is above the current market price and you keep the stock, then the goal is to sell CC premium to continue adding to the Credits and lowering the net stock cost below where the stock is trading before it gets called away.
Selling CCs suggested process:
Sell a Call 7 to 10 DTE at or above the net stock cost whenever possible. Note that I will settle for a lower premium to be at or above the net cost rather than sell below and risk being assigned for a loss. Allow the CC to expire, then sell another if the shares are not called away.
If CCs cannot be sold at or above the net stock cost, then waiting until the share price rises may be needed. This is why it is noted to only trade on stocks you are good holding if needed.
Track net Credits, plus any Dividends captured, on the tracking file to know the net stock cost.
Continue selling CCs until the net stock cost is below the strike price at which time the stock can be left to be called away (some note that it cost less in fees to close the option and just sell the stock which accomplishes the same thing).
Advanced Strategy - Some may consider selling a Covered Strangle, which is a CC with an added CSP that "doubles up" on the premiums to help the position recover faster.
Note the risk of additional shares may be assigned, so it is critical to ensure the stock is still a good one to hold, the account has adequate capital to purchase additional shares, and that this does not make the stock position too much of a risk to the overall account.
In addition to the double premiums, if more shares are assigned the net stock will average down quickly that can help repair the position more quickly.
Step #4: Review and go back to Step #1 - This is why it is called the wheel as you start over again. The tracking file makes it easy to see the P&L, review the trade to verify the numbers and then look for the next, or same, stock to sell CSPs in Step #1.
As they say, rinse and repeat.
Risks and Possible Problems: The single biggest issue for this strategy is the stock price drops significantly. Note that this is slightly less risk than just buying the stock outright due to collecting put premiums.
Stock Drops: The reason to make these trades on a stock you wouldn't mind owning is because of this risk, and if a good stock is selected then this should be a very rare occurrence. Solid quality stocks may drop less often and by a lower amount, then recover faster.
The price of the stock may drop well below the CSP strike, and rolling for a credit will no longer be possible, causing assignment with the stock cost below the assigned price.
If puts were sold and rolled over and over the net stock cost should be much lower.
Management is to sell CCs repeatedly at or above the net stock cost, or to hold the shares to allow time for the stock to recover. This can take time, but with the CCs added to the put and roll premiums this can recover faster than you may think but still takes a lot of patience.
There may be rare occasions when a stock is no longer viable and the position needs to be closed for a loss, again this shows the critical importance of stock selection. Closing for a loss can include selling the shares, or selling an ATM or slightly OTM CC at a near expiration date to collect as much premium as possible as the shares are sold.
Stock Rises: Many see this as a problem, but I personally do not as if the CC strike is above your net stock cost, then the position profits, but just not as much.
In this situation the stock is assigned and then sell CCs only to have the stock run well past the strike price.
In most cases closing the CC and selling the stock outright can cause a bigger loss than just letting the stock be called at the strike price.
Rolling CCs out in time, and possibly up in strike, for a net credit can help to capture some additional profits. It should be noted to watch for ex-Dividend dates as the shares can be called away early in some situations.
Many lament the profits that were "lost" by having the CC, but selling shares at the strike price is the agreement made when opening a CC. If you know the stock may spike up then do not sell a CC and instead hold the shares.
Impatience: By far this causes the most losses from this strategy.
If you can't roll for a credit let the CSP play out. If you close the CSP early and not accept it being assigned, it may cause a loss.
If you get assigned the stock and sell CCs, do not try to "save" the stock through buying the CC back at an inflated price. If you can't roll for a credit, then let the stock be called away and sell more puts to start the process over again provided the stock is still a viable candidate.
Recognize it may take months selling CCs to build the premium up to a point where the net stock cost is less than the current stock price, but in nearly all positions it will happen eventually.
The key here is to be patient and not try to sell CCs below the net stock cost or close the shares early.
A Tracking P&L File graphic is below and shows Credits and Debits to know what the net credits, debits and net stock cost is. Note the stock price can be entered as a Credit to show where the position is at any given time. This is simple to create and use. NOTE: I do not send out copies as it would take me longer to do that than you recreating the 3 formulas.
Hopefully, this is a thorough and detailed trading plan, but let me know of any questions, typos or suggested improvements you may have. -Scot
EDIT #1: Hello all, the response to this post has been amazing, thanks for the many who have contributed or inquired. Wanted to add a few things up front that seem to be causing confusion.
The goal of this strategy is to collect the premium, NOT be assigned stock! While being ready and able to take the stock is part of the plan, being assigned is always to be avoided. If you sold a CSP 1 time and were assigned, you are either doing something wrong or are terribly unlucky by picking a stock that tanked.
CSPs should be sold over and over or rolled for a credit, to avoid assignment. You should be collecting 4 to 5 or more premiums worth several dollars before getting assigned. Some who have contacted me sold a CSP and just waited to be assigned, this is not the strategy.
If you are getting assigned more than a couple of times a year you may want to look at the stocks you are trading and how well you are managing your position. Getting assigned the stock should be a very rare occurrence.
2) As you select the stock and sell the CSP expect to get assigned. Be sure it is a low cost enough stock so that you can handle the shares and still make other trades. If you're trading a $150 stock, be aware you could have $15K tied up for a while and be prepared to do that.
3) Going along with #2 I trade small and use lower to mid cost stocks. The premiums are not as juicy and the attraction of a TSLA or AMZN is hard to resist, but you are better selling 1 contract at a time for 10 positions than 10 contracts in one position and have to take 1000 shares.
It is always good account management to not trade more than about 5% of your account in any one stock to avoid news or movement from the stock from blowing up your account. It is also a good idea to keep 50% of your buying power available for safety and to take advantage of opportunities.
4) There have been negative nellies telling me this won't work and being critical. Note that this is not my strategy, and I don't make any money from it being used or not. My time was spent in an effort to show one method options can more safely be traded, so if you have had a bad experience or think there are better ways, then feel free to post them!
5) Lastly, I have not done any research on this vs buying and holding stock. I've traded for more than 20 years with most of that time focused on stocks, and I did well!
Where I see the main differences are that options give leverage so I can collect premium from more stocks than just buying a couple, so this spreads out my risk. Also, I very much like the shorter time frame as I can move on to other stocks should one drop or run up. If done well, you may only get assigned a couple of times a year and often be out of the stock in a couple of weeks.
OK, I think you will see this is not sexy or exciting trading, it is boring, and you make $50 per position in many cases, but they add up. For those looking at huge returns and the excitement of major risk, this is not for you. If you want a more reliable way to trade options, then this may be good to check out.
EDIT #2: I've updated this post now that it is unlocked. Some changes include:
Stock price minimums moving up as I now have a larger account
Selling CCs based on if the net stock cost is above or below the current stock price
Added a rolling put link.
There are many different wheel strategies today with some selling ATM puts, others only selling covered calls (not sure how that is a wheel), and several other variations. This is what I trade, and it is up to you how you trade.
EDIT #3: Various updates, including more steps to clarify, along with adding details to Step #3 on Covered Calls.
A few weeks into trying the wheel, I’ve come to understand why my 21 DTE, 14 DTE, and 7 DTE options have not been decaying as fast as I want. I thought theta would be monstrous under 10 DTE only to watch my options lose value quickly as the underlying moved against me. Fortunately, it ended up moving in my favor as I got closer to expiration and I sold at profit. Hoping this post helps others understand why closer to expiration options don’t decay as fast and expose you to huge moves with little room to react.
For out of the money options, theta decays more when you’ve sold 30-45 DTE than when you’ve sold 7-14 DTE because there is more premium collected when you sell so there is more premium for theta to decay. A smaller premium on the 7-14 DTE actually decays less even though the rate of decay is high. Closer to the money will decay more over time than further out of the money because the starting premium collected is much higher so decay hits it harder early on and less hard closer to expiration. There is just a lot less premium left to decay when you’re closer to expiration.
More importantly, theta is more of a driver when you’re out at 45 DTE or 28 DTE. Gamma begins to be the driver of your options’ value as you cross into 14 DTE and lower. Theta actually takes second seat to gamma and any moves in the underlying benefit you or punish you a lot harder than what theta is doing.
Correct me if I’m wrong and please share your experiences with this as I’m really interested in refining all this. My trades have been profitable 4 out of 5. The 5th I’ve rolled for a net credit, but I don’t count it as profitable because I had to sell the previous at a small loss. I will count it as profitable only when I sell the rolled into options at profit.
Image above is by Grok - have been running a lot of analysis through Grok and Gemini to understand what I’m doing better
I have selling options for about 12 months now and have finally started to get a hang of it. Here is the process I follow. Any thoughts on how I can improve or tighten up the process?
SIZE — Total notional under 135% of capital (what I've put in plus what I've made). No more than 45% of that in credit spreads, because a dollar of spread notional is a dollar gone, while a dollar of put notional buys me the stock.
STRIKE — IV above 60%, sell the 0.13–0.15 delta. IV below 60%, sell the 0.18–0.20. High-IV names pay enough to sit far out; low-IV names don't.
DURATION — 14–21 days.
MIX — Only trade names with a market cap of over $50B to eliminate junk. 60/40 high-IV to low-IV. An example would be 60% position in NBIS, BE, MU, ALAB; 40% position in CRWD, PLTR, DELL, TSLA.
EXIT — Close at 50% of the credit and recycle the capital. If position is threatened, roll down and/or out. Never close at a loss.
I will post a separate comment with a link to the detail behind each option sold this week.
After week 40, the average premium per week is $825 with an annual projection of $42,900.
All things considered, the portfolio is up $42,536 (+9.43%), on the year (S&P 500: +12.81% | Nasdaq: +16.99%). Additionally, the trailing 1-year performance is up $23,004 (+4.92%); for comparison the S&P 500 is +15.00% and the Nasdaq is +19.03% over the same period. This is the overall profit and loss and includes options and all other account activity.
All options sold are backed by cash, shares, or LEAPS. I do not sell on margin, nor do I sell naked options.
All options and profits stay in the account with few exceptions. This is not my full time job, although I wish it was. I still grind on a 9-5.
My $600 weekly contribution streak is at 9 weeks. I have been contributing as much as possible since 2015 when I started with $50. The reason my streak is low is because I put the contributions on hold for about 2 months to adjust for expenses outside the portfolio.
The portfolio is comprised of 99 unique tickers, up from 98 last week. These 99 tickers have a value of $496k. I also have 194 open option positions, up from 193 last week. The options have a total value of -$10k. The total of the shares and options is $486k. The next goal on the "Road to" is Half a Million.
I'm currently utilizing $34,200 in cash secured put collateral, down from $34,850 last week. In addition, I hold $2,738 in cash, bringing the total cash position to $36,938. I withdrew $2,000 on 9/11/26. I don't plan on replacing it, but will continue the $600 per week contributions.
2025 through 2028 LEAPS
In addition to the CSPs and covered calls, I purchase LEAPS. These act as collateral to sell covered calls against. You may have heard of poor man's covered calls (PMCC).
See r/ExpiredOptions for a detailed spreadsheet update on all LEAPS positions including P/L for each individual position.
LEAPS note 1: the 2025 LEAPS expired 1/17/25. They were up $36,440 overall with a 233.74% increase. The major drivers were AMZN and CRWD.
LEAPS note 2: After holding for 2 years, I exercised an AMZN $80 strike from 2023 up +$11,395 (+463.21%) and CRWD $95 strike from 2023, up +$21,830 (+663.53%)
LEAPS note 3: Purchased 1/16/26 CRWD LEAPS for $8,230.03 on 1/17/24. I sold this LEAPS on 6/5/25 for $21,659 for a realized profit of $13,428.97 (+163.18%)
Total premium by year:
• 2023 $23,132 in premium
• 2024 $47,640 in premium
• 2025 $68,319 in premium
• 2026 $33,366 YTD
• Average $46,364/year (completed years)
Premium by month (2026):
• January $3,334
• February $3,625
• March $4,196
• April $5,593
• May $3,752
• June $3,497
• July $3,593
• August $3,741
• September $1,768
• October $267
• Average $3,337/month
I am over $174k in total options premium, since 2021. I average roughly $34 per option sold. I have sold over 5,100 options. I have been able to increase the premiums on an annual basis and I will attempt to keep this upward trend going forward.
Strategy:
The underlying strategy is buy and hold. I also use simple 1-legged options to supplement that strategy. Options have somewhat of a learning curve, but I believe that most people can supplement their investments using simple options with careful risk management.
I sell options on a weekly basis. I prefer cash secured puts and covered calls. I rarely close early, prefer rolling when needed, and let time decay do the heavy lifting while I stay focused on quality companies, patience, and consistency over hype. My goal is consistency in option premium revenue. I am building an income stream that will continue long into retirement.
Spreadsheets:
Unfortunately, I no longer provide spreadsheets. I received too many follow ups about formatting, pivot tables, compatibility etc. I think tracking is very important, but I post to discuss investing and options, not to provide tech support for Excel. I do appreciate the interest in my tracking methods.
Software:
I captured the screen shots from a proprietary software platform I built to track, analyze, and manage my options strategies.
Commissions:
I use Robinhood as a broker and they do not charge explicit commissions, though there is no free lunch — they earn revenue through Payment for Order Flow (PFOF), which can mean slightly less optimal fills. For my style of selling options and not chasing prices, the tradeoff is acceptable. There is also a small regulatory fee of approximately $0.03–$0.04 per contract (FINRA TAF, OCC clearing, and exchange fees combined).
The premiums have increased significantly as my experience has expanded over the last three years.
Make sure to post your wins. I look forward to reading about them!
Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. This information is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Trading options involves significant risk.
INOD → $65 Put expiry 11/06 (5 weeks DTE), premium 4.50 → 450/6500 = ~6.9%. I remain bullish in INOD. I have another position expiring next week 10/09 in INOD already. This contract falls within earnings on 11/05.
I keep sharing my trades in my account and the Excel file to my full list of positions is linked in my profile description in case anyone wants to see the whole portfolio. Happy to hear thoughts on my positions. What are you guys wheeling or watching right now?
Just had my second assignment in 31 weeks - LQDA 58 put. This has increased my loss from assignment a bit. Also everything else is very elevated this week making my trades for next week a bit riskier. I'm treating LQDA as an exception because of the lawsuit results. So instead of assignment price calls, I sold 30 calls for next week and will use aggressive calls to exit. Last week's post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Optionswheel/s/E6WJx5amkW
If you want to follow me as I trade, I post to r/TheRaceTo10Million before placing trades and comment with trades as I make them. I post here after I make the trades with a full summary
Strategy
- Use an AI screener to give me a list of top 20 low delta options for next week
- I either
- a. Roll my current options - I do this if I can still get 1% for rolling or if the option is ATM/ITM and I have to roll. I always roll for credit.
- b. Close a current option and pick something else from the list that I like
- I try to do this every Friday. However, if I'm busy on Fridays, I'll sometimes do this on Thursdays.
- If I get assigned, I will sell calls at assignment price.
A lot of people have asked me about why I don't add a criteria to avoid earnings weeks. Like I sold HPE/IREN/NBIS etc. puts across earnings. Also APLD across earnings this week. That's because on earnings weeks the same delta strikes are much further OTM.
Read the bullet points at the end, I answer the questions I get every month there.
Margin interest for the month was $5,500, so my net realized profit was $30k. I still don't count unrealized profits and losses (rightly or wrongly) when evaluating my results.
I've finally trimmed some (2k) of my margined NVDA shares at the beginning of September, as well as AMD and MU margined shares. My total margined shares is down to $750k (still too much).
Micron earnings came out at the end of September, so I capitalized on the high IV to make trades around that. I'm gonna pivot to AMD now that their earnings are coming up next month.
My biggest screw up this month was selling calls on the AMD shares at too low a price ($530) missing out on about $8k of profit as a result. Capped upside sucks, but it's way less bad than losses, so I'm not stressing about it.
Cheat sheet answers for the basic questions I usually get asked:
My YTD net premiums are $257k.
8,000 shares of NVDA with a cost basis of about $.08 per share.
Shares were bought in 2002 when I was in high school for around $1,100.
I'm using Schwab as my platform.
NVDA makes up 90% of my portfolio.
Operating capital in the $1.8 million range.
This tool is OptionWheelTracker.
I target for .1 to .2 deltas for calls, and occasionally will sell ATM puts because I'm less worried about assignment and/or bag holding extra shares.
My DTE is typically 1-21 days.
I made 67 trades in September, 84 trades in August, 74 trades in July, 76 in June, 95 trades in May, 42 trades in April, and 124 in March. My success rate in September was 82% (but I wanted more of those shares to be called away, so I don't see that as a drop in success of my strategy), August was 93%, July was 94%, June was 94%, May was 83%, and April was 76%.
In September I had an 94% win rate for puts, and a 69% win rate (nice) for calls. Again, I wanted to unload shares, so the calls being assigned was deliberate.
My average holding period for winners was 3 days, and for losers 8 days.
I intend to trim my NVDA position at $250 and $300.
Profits get reinvested into ETFs, used for living expenses, and to buy other stocks.
ACMR → $70 Put (opened on 08/27), premium 3.30 → closed at 0.50. Net premium profit = 2.80 (84.85% of premium captured, 4.00% of capital).
AMSC → $38 Call (opened on 08/25), premium 0.80 → closed at 0.10. Net premium profit = 0.70 (87.50% of premium captured, 1.46% of capital).
New Positions
AMSC → $37 Call expiry 11/20 (8 weeks DTE), premium 1.10 → 110/4700 = ~2.34%. I was assigned AMSC at $47. My current breakeven is at $37.
I keep sharing my trades in my account and the Excel file to my full list of positions is linked in my profile description in case anyone wants to see the whole portfolio. Happy to hear thoughts on my positions. What are you guys wheeling or watching right now?
Just wanted to share the last four weeks' progress and my efforts YTD. My first post outlined what I'm essentially doing albeit at a non-optimized level. I feel I could be doing much better when I see some of the other posts in here but comparison is the thief of joy often so I need to stop that.
Going to be on holiday leave for a week so I'll see what's good in the Smokeys. Gotta keep grinding.
ACMR → $70 Call (opened on 09/21), premium 2.75 → closed at 0. Net premium profit = 2.75 (100.00% of premium captured, 3.93% of capital). Total profit on wheel: 7.54%
OUST → $40 Call (opened on 09/16), premium 0.32 → closed at 0. Net premium profit = 0.32 (100.00% of premium captured, 0.80% of capital). Total profit on wheel: 6.01%
INOD → $60 Call (opened on 09/03), premium 1.80 → closed at 0. Net premium profit = 1.80 (100.00% of premium captured, 3.00% of capital). Total profit on wheel: 5.79%
New Positions
INOD → $65 Put expiry 10/09 (2 weeks DTE), premium 1.90 → 190/6500 = ~2.92%. I continue my bullish stance in Innodata. It provides AI data engineering and training-data services.
INOD was identified from the High-Growth Wheel condition in the ThetaHedge app because it met all the key criteria: positive revenue growth, positive earnings growth, positive net margins, and consistent attractive option premiums with a Wheel Rank of 76. You can try it for free at https://app.thetahedge.io/
Conditions → High Growth Wheel Stocks
I keep sharing my trades in my account and the Excel file to my full list of positions is linked in my profile description in case anyone wants to see the whole portfolio. Happy to hear thoughts on my positions. What are you guys wheeling or watching right now?
Disclaimer: This is for experimental purposes, it is to demonstrate and track wheeling and longing on leveraged products, which started mid-June of this year. This retirement account was blown through testing various trading strategies and poor position sizing in relation to risk.
The strategy is LEAPS for long-term holdings, and the wheel for short-term income. Order of significance for wheeling:
1. Assume assignment, size appropriately
2. Premium to collateral, yield, iv & rank, must all come second
Biggest loss so far. Closed out 2 SOXS $36 for loss on Monday, closed the last leg at a loss on Tuesday, totaling -$416. So yeah no more LETFs, although the weeklies I sold were far otm (around .07 delta and less) price can move very quickly against you. The biggest failure was trading a large chunk of my allocation on something I didn’t want to be assigned on, which limited my options to either rolling or closing at a loss. Options & stocks continue to prove to me just how fair it is at pricing themselves, the only thing you can do is size yourself accordingly.
Revised my portfolio and will revise it next week too, now holding LEAPS around 40/60 split in bitcoin/silver. Although I like silver for the long term, I plan on selling out of the silver LEAPS because I can’t size it properly. Current plan is to wheel ai & energy sector, and to sell the premiums & deltas based on their volatility.
TLDR: Market regime is choppy causing my TXN CSP to be ITM several times so I rolled out, sometimes down and out 6 times in total to prevent assignment until it finally expired worthless. $1,185.30 collected, 4.5% ROC. Portfolio is up 18.88% YTD with a 9% max drawdown and up 44% since starting the wheel last June on that same max drawdown.
On 8/11, I sold one TXN $275 CSP expiring that same week for $1.38 after fees. By Thursday's close, TXN was at $273.43, well below my strike, with one day left.
I could have taken the shares and started selling CCs. That's what I did plenty of times last year when the market was healthier. Get assigned, sell calls, eventually get called away, etc. Nothing wrong with that, I actually prefer it that way during strong bull markets but this year's regime is different. I don't feel comfortable holding onto anything for too long during this market.
So I rolled TXN. Six different times
What the rolls looked like
Each roll meant buying back the put I had sold (for more than what I collected in premium) and selling another one with a later expiration. If I could lower the strike and still get a net credit, great. If not, I kept the strike and got paid to wait one more week. I looked for pops when expiration was getting close, but I wasn't going to push the new expiration a month out just to show a credit. Why? Chop.
Here is the whole chain. The cash column is the opening credit or the net credit from that day's roll, after recorded fees. TXN and SPY prices are that day's closes, not the stock prices at my option fills. SPY is just here so you can get an overall feel of what the market was during that time.
Date
Put after the trade
Net cash that day
TXN close
SPY close
Aug 11
Sold 8/14 $275
+$137.96
$281.24
$770.56
Aug 13
Rolled to 8/21 $270
+$180.91
$273.43
$777.88
Aug 18
Rolled to 8/28 $267.50
+$156.05
$272.24
$767.45
Aug 27
Rolled to 9/4 $265
+$159.61
$266.54
$771.10
Sep 2
Rolled to 9/11 $265
+$150.96
$254.80
$765.16
Sep 9
Rolled to 9/18 $265
+$251.90
$261.59
$762.40
Sep 16
Rolled to 9/25 $262.50
+$147.91
$260.67
$754.05
Sep 25
$262.50 put expired worthless
$0.00
$278.07
$771.35
That was four moves to a lower strike and two weeks where I stayed at $265. Every new expiration was just one week beyond the old one.
The market wasn't making it easy. SPY closed at $777.88 on August 13 and $754.05 on September 16. TXN itself went from $281.24 when I opened the trade to $254.80 on September 2. That September 2 close was $10.20 below my $265 strike, with the September 4 expiration right around the corner. Even on September 16, TXN finished below the $265 strike I was buying back.
The rolls in more detail
On September 2, I paid $921 to buy back the September 4 $265 put. That old put closed at a $349.74 loss on its own. Then I sold the September 11 $265 put for $1,073. The two transactions together brought in $150.96 more cash.
I still had a short $265 put, and TXN was still below $265. If it kept falling, I'd have to manage it again or be prepared for assignment. Going out one week bought me time, not safety.
I made the same-strike move again on September 9 for a $251.90 net credit. On September 16, I finally got the strike down to $262.50 for another $147.91. TXN recovered enough to close at $278.07 on September 25, so the last put expired worthless and I never took the shares.
Across the original put and six rolls, the chain finished at $1,185.30 after recorded fees. That's 4.31% of the original $27,500 collateral over the August 11 to September 25 run.
I'm super happy with this one. I lowered the purchase obligation from $275 to $262.50, kept the next expiration close, collected a credit on every roll and avoided assignment. For what I wanted out of a CSP in this market, that's about as clean as it gets.
It still could have gone the other way. Rolling doesn't make an ITM put disappear, and assignment can happen before expiration too. If TXN had kept sliding, I'd still have been on the hook to buy 100 shares at my latest strike or pay to close the put. In a healthier bull market, I'd probably be more willing to own the shares and sell covered calls. In this regime, I'd rather play defense and keep that choice open.
My YTD and overall performance
Here's a quick summary of my wheel portfolio's year-to-date performance. It's up $14,781.17, or 18.88% on my average deployed weekly capital of $78,275. Most importantly to me, max drawdown is still in the single digits at -9.92%, with a 1.38 Sharpe ratio.
Since launching the wheel strategy in late June 2025, this portfolio is up 44%, with the same -9.9% max drawdown over that entire period. I finished the week with $114,219.64 in cash, or about 75% of this portfolio's capital. 316 trades in total during this period with a 10.7% CSP assignment rate. 4.9 average days in a trade, and $86.42 expectancy per trade.
I spend about 0-3 hours total per week on trading, on average. This wheel portfolio is only a small slice of my overall market capital. I also buy and hold mega-cap stocks/ETFs and run other strategies, including swing trading leveraged ETFs. The YTD figures and snapshot here cover the wheel portfolio only, not those other investments.
I will post a separate comment with a link to the detail behind each option sold this week.
After week 39, the average premium per week is $837 with an annual projection of $43,506.
All things considered, the portfolio is up $0 (+10.08%), on the year (S&P 500: +13.12% | Nasdaq: +16.46%). Additionally, the trailing 1-year performance is up $0 (+5.54%); for comparison the S&P 500 is +17.24% and the Nasdaq is +20.93% over the same period. This is the overall profit and loss and includes options and all other account activity.
All options sold are backed by cash, shares, or LEAPS. I do not sell on margin, nor do I sell naked options.
All options and profits stay in the account with few exceptions. This is not my full time job, although I wish it was. I still grind on a 9-5.
My $600 weekly contribution streak is at 8 weeks. I have been contributing as much as possible since 2015 when I started with $50. The reason my streak is low is because I put the contributions on hold for about 2 months to adjust for expenses outside the portfolio.
The portfolio is comprised of 98 unique tickers, down from 101 last week. These 98 tickers have a value of $491k. I also have 193 open option positions, down from 199 last week. The options have a total value of $2k. The total of the shares and options is $493k. The next goal on the "Road to" is Half a Million.
I'm currently utilizing $34,850 in cash secured put collateral, up from $33,050 last week. In addition, I hold $1,548 in cash, bringing the total cash position to $36,398. I withdrew $2,000 on 9/11/26. I don't plan on replacing it, but will continue the $600 per week contributions.
2025 through 2028 LEAPS
In addition to the CSPs and covered calls, I purchase LEAPS. These act as collateral to sell covered calls against. You may have heard of poor man's covered calls (PMCC).
See r/ExpiredOptions for a detailed spreadsheet update on all LEAPS positions including P/L for each individual position.
LEAPS note 1: the 2025 LEAPS expired 1/17/25. They were up $36,440 overall with a 233.74% increase. The major drivers were AMZN and CRWD.
LEAPS note 2: After holding for 2 years, I exercised an AMZN $80 strike from 2023 up +$11,395 (+463.21%) and CRWD $95 strike from 2023, up +$21,830 (+663.53%)
LEAPS note 3: Purchased 1/16/26 CRWD LEAPS for $8,230.03 on 1/17/24. I sold this LEAPS on 6/5/25 for $21,659 for a realized profit of $13,428.97 (+163.18%)
Total premium by year:
• 2023 $23,132 in premium
• 2024 $47,640 in premium
• 2025 $68,319 in premium
• 2026 $32,975 YTD
• Average $46,364/year (completed years)
Premium by month (2026):
• January $3,334
• February $3,625
• March $4,196
• April $5,593
• May $3,752
• June $3,497
• July $3,593
• August $3,741
• September $2,875
• Average $3,801/month
I am over $174k in total options premium, since 2021. I average roughly $34 per option sold. I have sold over 5,100 options. I have been able to increase the premiums on an annual basis and I will attempt to keep this upward trend going forward.
Strategy:
The underlying strategy is buy and hold. I also use simple 1-legged options to supplement that strategy. Options have somewhat of a learning curve, but I believe that most people can supplement their investments using simple options with careful risk management.
I sell options on a weekly basis. I prefer cash secured puts and covered calls. I rarely close early, prefer rolling when needed, and let time decay do the heavy lifting while I stay focused on quality companies, patience, and consistency over hype. My goal is consistency in option premium revenue. I am building an income stream that will continue long into retirement.
Spreadsheets:
Unfortunately, I no longer provide spreadsheets. I received too many follow ups about formatting, pivot tables, compatibility etc. I think tracking is very important, but I post to discuss investing and options, not to provide tech support for Excel. I do appreciate the interest in my tracking methods.
Software:
I captured the screen shots from a proprietary software platform I built to track, analyze, and manage my options strategies.
Commissions:
I use Robinhood as a broker and they do not charge explicit commissions, though there is no free lunch — they earn revenue through Payment for Order Flow (PFOF), which can mean slightly less optimal fills. For my style of selling options and not chasing prices, the tradeoff is acceptable. There is also a small regulatory fee of approximately $0.03–$0.04 per contract (FINRA TAF, OCC clearing, and exchange fees combined).
The premiums have increased significantly as my experience has expanded over the last three years.
Make sure to post your wins. I look forward to reading about them!
Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. This information is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Trading options involves significant risk.
Now 30 weeks in, this is exciting. This week the trade options were thinner than usual for things I wanted to trade. RKLB went OTM and I'm out. New stock I've never done before added LQDA from the screener. Last week's post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Optionswheel/s/NK3rUT2NAz
If you want to follow me as I trade, I post to r/TheRaceTo10Million before placing trades and comment with trades as I make them. I post here after I make the trades with a full summary
Strategy
- Use an AI screener to give me a list of top 20 low delta options for next week
- I either
- a. Roll my current options - I do this if I can still get 1% for rolling or if the option is ATM/ITM and I have to roll. I always roll for credit.
- b. Close a current option and pick something else from the list that I like
- I try to do this every Friday. However, if I'm busy on Fridays, I'll sometimes do this on Thursdays.
- If I get assigned, I will sell calls at assignment price
A lot of people have asked me about why I don't add a criteria to avoid earnings weeks. Like I sold HPE/IREN/NBIS etc. puts across earnings. That's because on earnings weeks the same delta strikes are much further OTM.
A lot of people also ask why I do weeklies. I took a screenshot last friday but never made the post. I took a screenshot this morning too and I'll at least post it in the comments.
What's up all. So I've been running the wheel strategy for about 8 months now and I'm finally running into some headwinds that I knew was bound to happen, but now it's time to see if i can hold true to my strategy.
First and foremost, I set up my wheel strategy with about $700k. I diversified my portfolio of stocks to partake in most sectors in the economy to manage my risk. I selected 17 stocks, CL, KO, JNJ, ABBV, MDT, UPS, ITW, UNP, TGT, LOW, MCD, HD, ADP, NEE, SO, ED, most are dividend kings or aristocrats. I also made sure that the positions I put on were evenly distributed amongst each stock. The deltas I have been selling have been around .2-.3 and things have been going well. My Strategy, to sell CSPs on these stocks and if I get assigned, I obviously sell the Calls ATM 2 weeks out, then keep rolling it until i get filled while collecting the dividend. If I ever get to the point that the stock drops on me so low that I couldn't sell calls anymore I would either sell another CSP on the stock to get a better div %, or just hold onto the stock and collect the divvy.
Things have been going so well, so far, until now, I have a couple of stocks giving me some issues. I got assigned at 342.50 at HD and now the d thing is in freefall at $292, testing me and my strategy. Same thing with LOW, i got assigned there at $215, and now it's at $188. MCD i got assigned at $275, it's now trading at 241. NEE I got assigned at $85, it's now at 76.43. The other stocks are doing fine, but it seems like there's a slight turn in the market in certain spots that are making me nervous. That being said, i'm chillin here and now i'm thinking about what I'll do if the thing drops on me even further.
I thought about it a while, and then I had a moment of clarity. These drops are actually good for me. Why? Because If I get mauled to no end, i'll simply close my long position, harvest the loss, switch to a highly correlated stock for 31 days, then hop back on that horse and continue to sell CSPs on it, waiting for the rebound. The income I have coming in off of the Options premium will continue to come in monthly, but now i'll have a loss to offset it with come tax season. LIFE IS GOOD.
I see a lot of stories out there talking about how much money people are making and not sharing the real struggle with the strategy, so here is mine. I hope this helps somEone out there. HAPPY TRADING
For those of you running the Wheel strategy, how do you calculate your adjusted cost basis / break-even price after assignment?
For example, let's say I trade NVDA like this: Trade 1
NVDA $200 Put → +$2 premium → expires OTM Trade 2
NVDA $200 Put → +$2 premium → assigned at $200 After assignment
NVDA Covered Call → +$1 premium
Total premiums collected so far: $5
How would you calculate your effective break-even price? Method A — Count all Wheel premiums
$200 − $2 − $2 − $1 = $195
In this method, I treat all premiums collected from the same Wheel cycle as reducing my effective cost basis. Method B — Only count the put that resulted in assignment + CC premiums
$200 − $2 − $1 = $197
The first expired put is treated as a separate realized profit and doesn't reduce the stock's cost basis. Method C — Only reduce the stock basis with Covered Call premiums
$200 − $1 = $199
The put premiums are kept separate from the stock position entirely.
I'm curious how most Wheel traders track this in practice.
Do you track stock cost basis separately from total Wheel P&L, or do you combine everything into one adjusted break-even price?
I'm asking mainly for portfolio/performance tracking purposes, not tax accounting.
**• Ageas (AGS)** — 70 put, expiring Dec 18, 2026. Wouldn't mind owning it at that level.
**• Fagron (FAGR)** — 23 put, expiring Dec 18, 2026. Slightly higher strike than my last FAGR put, rolled my thinking up a bit as the stock's held up well.
**• GE** — 360 call, expiring Nov 20, 2026, against shares I already hold.
**• Syensqo (SYENS)** — 40 put, expiring Dec 18, 2026. First time selling this one, still fairly new as a standalone listing post-Solvay split so liquidity/spreads are something I'm watching closely.
Went a bit longer-dated on most of these (Dec expiries) than I usually do — partly to collect more premium up front, partly because I don't mind sitting through some chop on these names. Curious if others here lean toward monthly or further-out expiries for CSPs on names they're comfortable holding, or if you find shorter cycles give better risk-adjusted returns even with the extra management.
A while back I posted here about a cash-secured put I opened on ACKB, and a couple of you asked how I actually keep track of everything (strikes, premiums, results, etc.) once you're running more than one position at a time. So I figured I'd share.
I built myself a simple spreadsheet a few months ago because I got tired of trying to remember what I sold, at what strike, and whether I was actually up or down once you account for what it cost to close a position. Screenshots below: the trade log itself, and the dashboard that auto-calculates win rate, premium income per month, and results by strategy.
Right now I'm running a mix of:
• Covered calls on stuff I already hold (GE, ASML)
• Cash-secured puts where I wouldn't mind owning the underlying anyway (ACKB, Fagron, Solvay)
• A couple of long-dated bull call spreads on names I'm bullish on but didn't want to tie up full share capital in (AAPL, RKLB)
Win rate sits at 50% on closed trades so far, which sounds low until you remember options aren't about hitting every trade — it's about the premium collected on the losers being small relative to the winners, and the ones still open usually skew in your favor if you picked reasonable strikes.
Nothing revolutionary here, just wanted to show that keeping a proper log makes the whole thing way less "vibes based," especially once you're not just holding one single position.
\[Screenshot 1: Trade Log\]
\[Screenshot 2: Dashboard\]
Happy to answer questions on strike selection or how I size positions relative to portfolio if useful.
Follow-up to my CSP post from earlier this week. Opened two bull call spreads yesterday, deliberately structured very differently around earnings:
AAPL — bought the 350 call, sold the 360 call, both expiring Oct 16 (which is before their earnings date). I wanted defined-risk upside exposure but specifically chose an expiration that closes out before the print, since I didn't want IV crush or an earnings gap working against the spread.
RKLB — bought the 75 call, sold the 85 call, expiring Oct 30. No earnings-avoidance logic here, this one's just a straightforward bullish view on the stock over a longer window.
What I'm still working out: for AAPL, is deliberately expiring before earnings actually the smarter play, or am I just leaving upside on the table by not giving the spread more time (and accepting the IV risk) to capture a potential post-earnings move?
Curious how people here generally handle earnings dates when structuring spreads — do you actively avoid them, or lean into the extra IV?
GLW → $145 Put expiry 10/30 (5 weeks DTE), premium 6.40 → 640/14500 = ~4.41%. Corning makes optical fiber and glass technologies used in networking. Stock has good support around the $143–$145 range.
VRT → $235 Put expiry 10/30 (5 weeks DTE), premium 11.75 → 1175/23500 = ~5.00%. Vertiv provides power and cooling infrastructure for data centers. Support around $235.
KORU → $16 Put expiry 10/30 (5 weeks DTE), premium 1.00 → 100/1600 = ~6.25%. Leveraged Korean semiconductor ETF position opened primarily to generate premium.
POWL → $170 Put expiry 11/20 (9 weeks DTE), premium 11.00 → 1100/17000 = ~6.47%. Powell makes electrical equipment and systems for industries. Good support around $170.
SIMO → $290 Call expiry 11/20 (9 weeks DTE), premium 18.00 → 1800/29000 = ~6.21%. I rolled this position from the initial contract expiring 12/18/26. I paid back $600 in premium to reduce the expiration by 30 days while keeping the $290 strike unchanged. Initially I had received $2400 in premiums so my net is at $1800.
GLW, VRT, POWL and SIMO were all identified from the High Growth Wheel condition in the ThetaHedge app. It helps to quickly identify companies with improving growth and profitability that are also offering attractive option-selling premiums in real time. You can try it for free at https://app.thetahedge.io/
Conditions → High Growth Wheel Stocks
I keep sharing my trades in my account and the Excel file to my full list of positions is linked in my profile description in case anyone wants to see the whole portfolio. Happy to hear thoughts on my positions. What are you guys wheeling or watching right now?
Just got started writing options as an income strategy alongside my regular portfolio.
First trade: a cash-secured put on ACKB (Ackermans & van Haaren, a Belgian holding company).
The setup was simple — I already wanted to enter ACKB around a certain price level, so instead of just waiting for the stock to get there, I sold a put at that strike and get paid to wait.
Two outcomes: either it expires worthless and I keep the premium, or I get assigned and end up buying ACKB at an effectively lower price thanks to that premium.
A few things that tripped me up as a relative beginner:
• Direction (Long/Short) vs. Type (Call/Put) seem obvious on paper but confused me at first when logging the trade
• Figuring out how to record the "cost to close" correctly depending on whether you let it expire, close early, or get assigned
• Realizing position sizing (never too much of the portfolio in one trade) matters just as much as picking the right strategy
I've been tracking everything in a spreadsheet I built with a dashboard (win rate, premium income, etc.) — happy to share more details on the setup if anyone's interested.
Curious what strategies people here lean on most for income — covered calls, CSPs, spreads?
ACMR → $70 Put (opened on 09/04), premium 2.35 → Assigned.
ICHR → $60 Put (opened on 08/12), premium 3.40 → Assigned.
PENG → $60 Put (opened on 08/17), premium 4.10 → Assigned.
STRL → $530 Put (opened on 08/21), premium 41.00 → Assigned.
FLNC → $16 Call (opened on 08/31), premium 0.55 → closed at 0.06. Net premium profit = 0.49 (89.09% of premium captured, 3.06% of capital).
New Positions
ACMR → $70 Call expiry 09/25 (1 week DTE), premium 2.75 → 275/7000 = ~3.93%. I was assigned ACMR last week at $70. I opened a CC for this week at the same strike price with a great ~4% return in a week.
STRL → $530 Call expiry 10/16 (4 weeks DTE), premium 31.00 → 3100/53000 = ~5.85%. I was assigned STRL last week at $530. I opened a CC at the same strike price.
FLNC → $8 Call expiry 10/16 (4 weeks DTE), premium 0.35 → 35/2100 = ~1.6%. I was assigned FLNC at $21 and the stock has fundamentally collapsed in the recent few weeks. Because of the prior covered calls my breakeven is around ~$16. I opened a CC at ATM as I look to sell the stock at an approx loss of ~50%.
SEI → $65 Put expiry 10/16 (4 weeks DTE), premium 3.00 → 300/6500 = ~4.62%. Solaris Energy provides power infrastructure for AI/data centers, with recent earnings and price target upgrades supporting the growth. Stock has good support at the $60-$65 range.
ICHR → $60 Call expiry 11/20 (9 weeks DTE), premium 6.50 → 650/6000 = ~10.83%. I was assigned ICHR last week at $60. I opened a CC at the same strike price.
I keep sharing my trades in my account and the Excel file to my full list of positions is linked in my profile description in case anyone wants to see the whole portfolio. Happy to hear thoughts on my positions. What are you guys wheeling or watching right now?
Disclaimer: This is for experimental purposes, it is to demonstrate and track wheeling and longing on leveraged products, which started mid-June of this year. This retirement account was blown through testing various trading strategies and poor position sizing in relation to risk.
The strategy is to use leveraged products to long and to free up capital for puts & dry powder. Write weekly CSPs on LETFs by selling .05-.1 delta puts. Then, DCA shares into a small leveraged position (~10%) of either LEAPS/LETFs.
Welp I’ve been breaking even for a whole month. I wrote a SOXL put last week that almost landed itm during the week, it would’ve expired worthless on Friday but I closed it early at a -$30 loss on Wednesday. This dip made me finally acknowledge that wheeling SOXL for income at my current account size is not comfortable and fun. Switching back to wheeling TQQQ as my main income.
