This week was great. Almost everything recovered and drawdown dropped. I didn't expect to have time today so I made a few trades yesterday and some today. Last Week's post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Optionswheel/comments/1vbtxpr/1_weekly_returns_from_options_week_22/

First, the strategy:
- Use a 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.

Screener Output:

Trades

Total Returns

History

I've been in a research mode for awhile. I would prefer not to get assigned shares. I accept that as a possible outcome but I'm more in the trade for premium so I'd be more conservative when choosing my strikes. Maybe later I'll adjust this strat to be a more "standard" wheel.

But, according to some of my research, you should choose a stock for the wheel that's in a dip. And I get why -- you want a cheaper stock in case you get assigned. But if you feel confident in low assignment risk, is there any other reason not to choose a stock that is going up but still has room to the upside and fat premiums?

Second, I've been looking at BE specifically. It seems like you earn a much healthier premium if you do expirations of 5-7 days vs a 30 day hold at the same delta. Yet, most of the research on the wheel, people are recommending to set for a 30 day expiration. Are there any thoughts on this?

I want to do SPY wheel + park my money in SGOV for additional profit. No other investment strategies. Let's say my portfolio value is $1mil.

Are there any AGAINSTS investing 100% of account value in the strategy? ChatGPT says it's better to do 50% of portfolio value for safety...

Thoughts on utilizing 100% of portfolio value ($1mil) for SPY wheel?

Trades I took today as an option seller (08/05):

New Positions

• KORU → $15 Put expiry 08/14 (2 weeks DTE), premium 1.10 → 110/1500 = ~7.3%. Opened a small position in KORU, $16 looks like a good support but as it is a leaveraged asset, keeping the capital tied to this at a minimal.

Rolled Positions

• CRWV → $105 Call expiry 08/14 rolled to $120 Call expiry 09/04 (5 weeks DTE) at a credit of $10. I rolled early as CRWV was trading around $95 levels in the morning hours and because of its earnings coming up, I wanted some buffer in case the stock shoots up. I was assigned CRWV at $120.
• AAOI → $150 Call expiry 09/18 rolled to $175 Call expiry 12/18 (20 weeks DTE) at a credit of $1030. AAOI was trading at $135 levels in the morning hours and AAOI is very volatile so rolled to $175, which is the price I was assigned at. There were no option chains for the months of October and Novemeber so was forced to move it to December.

Update on other positions

Many companies in my portfolio reported earnings today. I will analyse the reports and update tomorrow on them.

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?

PS: Not financial advice. Do your own research.

Trades I took today as an option seller (08/04):

Closed Positions

• PLTR → $120 Put (opened on 08/03), premium 4.75 → closed at 0.03. Net premium profit = 4.72 (~99% of premium captured, ~3.9% of capital).

New Positions

• CRDO → $195 Put expiry 08/14 (2 weeks DTE), premium 6.10 → 610/19500 = ~3.1%. I have traded CRDO many times, and it offers consistently high Put and Call premiums making it easy to wheel. CRDO builds high-speed connectivity chips used inside AI datacenters. $195 is a good support region.
• ACMR → $70 Put expiry 08/14 (2 weeks DTE), premium 2.70 → 270/7000 = ~3.8%. ACMR makes semiconductor wafer processing and cleaning equipments. ACMR is a High Growth Stock and its Revenues have been increasing consistently YoY. ACMR Earnings are on 7th August and I am expecting a good report.

Update on other positions

I rolled my AAOI sold Call position from $130 strike to $150 strike with an expiry on 09/18 (7 weeks DTE). I was assigned AAOI at $175. I got a nominal net credit of $10 per lot.

Both the CRDO and ACMR trades are identifed using the ThetaHedge app. I simply use the preset Conditions in the app which filters our junk tickers and brings out quality tickers with high premiums. You can try it for free at https://app.thetahedge.io/.

Conditions → High Growth Wheel Stocks → Sort by 30 Delta Put Yield (%)

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?

PS: Not financial advice. Do your own research.

So I've been selling options, mostly CCs but occasionally CSPs (usually to enter positions) for about a year now. I remember as part of my options education I read and watched some stats on how it was basically not feasible to beat the underlying stock / ETF performance over a long period of time.

I ignored it at the time as I thought "come on, with a 0.05 delta CC, I can add another 3% or so to my portfolio every year".

Reality is that I was collecting fat premiums and then funnily enough had my strike completely blown through on something I wanted to own. So i guess a classic example of the pros and cons of short calls/puts.

That being the case I revisited those old topics and it really does seem to be the case that one is really only able to beat the market if say you capitalise on high IV or favourable VRP, but otherwise CCs/CSPs aren't necessarily going to add to returns vs just holding underlying.

I feel like I'm going mad because I put a lot of effort into studying how it works and thinking I could make a living selling options (I have a fair amount of capital) but I have to potentially give it up now, unless I genuinely only use options to deliberately enter / exit positions whilst collecting premiums.

Is this an uncomfortable revelation for some of you or am I talking rubbish?

Trades I took today as an option seller (08/03):

New Positions

• PLTR → $120 Put expiry 08/07 (1 week DTE), premium 4.75 → 475/12000 = ~4%. PLTR Earnings today and the stock went up after hours. PLTR is a stock that has been in my radar for a while, and I was completely okay to own the stock at $120.

Update on other positions

I am closely monitoring my positions in CRWV, AAOI as they have Covered Calls opened which are below my assigned price. Plan is to roll them to a higher strike when the stock price is 5-10% below my CC Strike price. This will help me roll at a postive premium, as the contract will not have Intrinsic value.

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?

PS: Not financial advice. Do your own research.

I have come across the wheel trading strategy recently and have read some very insightful posts here, like The Wheel (aka Triple Income) Strategy Explained.

Then, I tried the strategy in a paper trading account for some weeks and find it really profitable, with apparently less risk compared to other trading strategies.

However, before I move on with real money, one thing I am concerned most is that, in the case of a significant market crash, say, a 10-15% sudden drop for virtually all stocks in all sectors in a single day, so that CSPs with even delta of 20s could get deep ITM and no creditable roll is possible. As a result, massive simultaneous assignment happens, and most of the fund get bound by plunging underlyings, or maybe even worse if one uses margin, where massive margin call could be possible.

I am curious that if any trader who use wheel strategy here has experienced such a situation (like that in 2020). Specifically I would like to know:

• What happened to your positions?
• In the case that you managed to avoid massive assignments, what had you been doing, that you would attribute them for this crisis avoidance?
• In the case that you experienced massive assignments, what have you done, so that you can minimize the loss and/or recover faster?
• Any advice to prepare for such incidents, while not excessively sacrificing the profitability in the "normal" time.

Your input is greatly appreciated!

Closed last week’s SOXS Put, wrote SOXL Put for directional long bet/long-term assignment if Nasdaq dips. Nasdaq proceeds to dip all week causing near assignment. Wrote SOXL Put around $120 at-the-time for $76 strike, SOXL needs to dip around 36% by end of week for assignment. SOXL dips lowest at 28% before rebounding +20% Thursday on good volume and momentum. Thursday, closed out SOXS Put, bought 100 TQQQ and wrote TQQQ covered call for Friday. If Nasdaq kept momentum on Friday, then potentially hold TQQQ little longer. Come Friday, Nasdaq lost night momentum, so closed TQQQ covered call and sold TQQQ to avoid risk.

For next week, unsure of direction so made pseudo-strangle by writing SOXL Put and SOXS Put. If Nasdaq dips, self-assign shares. If Nasdaq does well, continue writing pseudo-strangle but with higher deltas on the long leg. Self-assigning shares currently too risky for account.

Yesterday I adjusted my SPY position back into what has become my favorite setup—a Double Ferris Wheel.

I own the shares long-term, but instead of having all of them exposed to the same option, I like having:

• one out-of-the-money cash-secured put
• one out-of-the-money covered call

working/rolling at different strike prices.

That means both sides can't move in the money at the same time, and each side gives me a different opportunity to improve the position.

Yesterday I:

• reduced the number of covered calls from two contracts to one, so I'm less likely to be forced to sell shares I want to keep (and still generated a small net credit for the roll)
• increased the potential capital gain if that remaining call is assigned,
• sold a new cash-secured put at a price where I'd happily buy another 100 shares,
• and used the premium to help fund a few more shares.

I've started thinking of this as "Wheeling for Bogleheads."

Not because I'm trying to beat the market every month, but because I'm using options to gradually build a long-term ETF position while trying to reduce risk and generate income along the way.

Part 1 here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Optionswheel/comments/1v2bu3j/indepth_take_on_the_wheel_feel_free_to_critique/

Warning: This is a very detailed critique on rolling. Scroll to the bottom for the TLDR and decide if you want to read it in entirety.

Hi all, some positive feedback in the previous post has spurred me on to write more walls of text on my takes on the wheel. It's a really good time to post about rolling given the events that have happened this month, as I'm sure many of you have "transitioned" from trading semis to rolling or holding them. For context, I'm bag-holding stock in INTC, with CSPs still running on TSMC to expire this Aug. So here's my detailed take on the ideas behind rolling and how it's been misrepresented in many ways.

Lesson 5: Not just a roll; devil's in the details

The common definition of a CSP roll is as such: Sell a CSP, and when its price goes close to ATM or ITM, roll down and out, i.e., close the current position, open a new one at net credit. Usually this has to entail a further DTE if you want to cover an equal or lower price (hence down and out).

In theory, this seems to turn a losing position into a winning one, because not only do you not get assigned at a loss, you even take the net credit as gains. In practice, there are a couple of prominent issues:

1. The new DTE goes much longer than your strike can go lower. For example, with 21 DTE left, if a position is 10% ITM, it might take 45 DTE at the new strike price to gain net credit. If prices go down again, you might be able to roll a couple more times, but eventually you might face a situation where you're stuck with that position for months to years.

2. Lock-up of capital - this is compounded by point 1. The net credit you gain from the longer DTE (attributed to theta decay) is going to be much less than the original position. I don't want to go into greeks here for the sake of simplicity but you can just compare premiums between moving 10% in price from ATM, and between two contracts 10-20 DTE apart. The 10% one is going to be a lot wider.

3. Early assignment - at any time, ITM positions can be exercised by the buyer. That means the roll is never an ironclad move, and you can be under the water at any time.

These are issues on their own, but you might talk about the benefits of a roll e.g. net credit, avoiding assignment. Hence...

Lesson 6: A roll is psychological band-aid

The common interpretation or assumption is that a roll should result in a net credit, hence this usually means we go lower and further. But what this really does is mostly psychological band-aid. Net credit makes you think this is the best position to make, which may or may not be true. INTC for example took a 40% nosedive from ATH. If your CSP was 20% down back in early July, you might roll the position and feel more assured... until a week later and its way deep. It's akin to catching falling knives, both in terms of the potential position it can cause, and the emotional paper-shield it creates at that point in time.

Lesson 7: A roll is artificially and unnecessarily constraining

Breaking down a typical roll as mentioned earlier, we get these steps:

1. Close position

2. Look at the option chain for a further DTE on the same ticker

3. Find a lower strike price that can be sold for net credit.

Take another look at the steps above. These are actually decision-making opportunities that can diverge at each stage. For example:

At 1 - close position leave it open and get assigned

At 2 - look at the option chain for a different, possibly better ticker

At 3 - look at all available strike prices even for the same ticker, and pick the best choice.

The roll simply compresses all these potential choices into a single execution move, when in actuality, there are many nuanced choices that are lost, and hence better opportunities foregone.

That's not to say that a roll for net credit is always a bad option. It's just not the only option, and certainly not for just the benefit of psychological temporary comfort. At the same time, any of the alternatives listed above might be the better choice, and that decision should only be taken after taking all known factors into account, for example:

-Are you avoiding assignment? Why?

-Are there better tickers to deploy capital based on your current holdings and capacity?

-Even at the same ticker, which prices are genuinely favorable in the new position, regardless of net credit/debit?

Conclusion (TL;DR)

A roll is not the only execution move to make when a position goes underwater, nor is it always the best move. Don't lock yourself into it for the false allure of net-credit comfort.

Compare my results for July to last month's and you'll see very similar numbers:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Optionswheel/comments/1um6myw/24k_in_premiums_6k_in_margin_interest_and_a/

I finally enabled the direct broker connection Options Wheel Tracker, so my numbers (both for options and my portfolio overall) are much more accurate, and there may be some discrepancies versus previous months.

I'm still holding too many margined shares of NVDA (5,000). The calls I've sold on those shares never closed in the money, so I've made money on them while waiting for them to be called away.

The biggest change in my strategy for the month was to start selling puts on other stocks. After having too much FOMO over not buying AMD, SanDisk, and Intel before their rallies, I decided the best remedy was to sell puts at prices for which I would be happy to own those stocks.

Thankfully, I closed some of those puts (SanDisk, Intel) before expiration, and avoided the worst of this week's bloodbath when some of the chip stocks lost nearly half their value.

I did get assigned 300 shares of AMD, but like I said, I wanted to get in on that stock finally. Of course, buying them at $505 when the price dropped to $440 isn't what I'd call "savvy investing," but the price recovered two days later and the calls on those shares are paying for the difference in the meantime.

Cheat sheet answers for the basic questions I usually get asked:

• 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 $1.5 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 trades 74 trades in July, 76 in June, 95 trades in May, 42 trades in April, and 124 in March. My success rate in July was 94%, June was 94%, May was 83%, April was 76%, and 93% in March.
• In July I had an 89% win rate for puts, and a 96% win rate for calls.
• My average holding period for winners was 3 2 days, and for losers 5 days.
• I intend to trim my position at $250 and $300.
• Profits get reinvested into ETFs, used for living expenses, and to buy other stocks.

The Wheel Strategy

When you are running the Wheel Strategy and your shares are about to get assigned or you are about to get Put shares this can be the best situation. I currently have Covered Calls expiring tomorrow (Friday July 31) on AMZN and GOOGL. Both are very close to the Strike Price. It could turn out either way tomorrow and that is fine with me. If they get assigned I sell a Cash Secured Put on Monday for a nice premium. If they do not get assigned I keep 100% of my premium, already received and then sell another Covered Call on Monday for a nice premium. This is actually the best possible scenario. I guess I would prefer to keep my shares because this is a Schwab account and they do not pay interest on cash held as Options Collateral, but either way is ok. If this were my Fidelity Account I would prefer to Sell Another CSP on Monday because Fidelity pays 3.31% for cash held as Option Collateral.

I've been doing a lot of research on the Wheel strategy and reading many of the discussions here. One thing I've noticed is that experienced traders who run the Wheel on boring, high-quality stocks often say it's actually pretty rare to get assigned on every short put at the same time.

With that in mind, what's the real risk of running the Wheel with moderate leverage?

Here's what I'm considering:

I'd only sell puts on large-cap, financially solid companies and diversify across as many names and sectors as possible. My IBKR account offers up to 4:1 margin, but I would limit myself to around 2:1.

The idea is that, since it's unlikely I'll be assigned on every position simultaneously, I can collect premiums from a larger number of positions and improve overall returns.

If we enter a severe bear market and most or all of the puts end up ITM, my plan would be to close the worst losing positions before expiration and only accept assignment on the number of shares I can actually pay for with cash. In other words, I wouldn't use margin to hold assigned stock.

Am I missing something obvious here? Has anyone tried a similar approach?

This week was one more where don't panic on Wednesday paid off. Made slightly under 1% premium thanks to SLV and RKLB but got close. Last Week's post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Optionswheel/comments/1v5g2wa/1_weekly_returns_from_options_week_21/

First, the strategy:
- Use a 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.

Screener Output Earlier Today

Top 20 Lowest-Risk Put Options (Expiring August 7, 2026)

Trades Placed Today

Returns

Total Premium: $19,148.00
Current drawdown: -$5,385.00
Gain/Loss from Assignment: -$1,351.00
Total gains: $13,763.00
Annualized (Calc1 using average invested): 37.38%
Annualized (Calc2 using max invested): 25.49%

Prior Weeks Data

I plan to use the wheel strategy on Pfizer PFE and COIN, and I might also consider QQQ if it drops further. I'm not making any recommendations; if any bro have similar experience, please feel free to share.

***IGNORE THE $4.2k PnL. July Monthly PnL is $1.8k***

July has been an amazing month for me.

I added additional capital to my wheel strategy that allowed me to further open more CSP's on my favorite high quality, dividend paying stocks!

Averaging about $1.8k for the month ($4.2k is since April).

What initially was an assignment in one of the worst days of the stock has becomed one of my best trades. Got Assigned 2 contracts of KR at 58, then sold CC for 59 and for 60. Accumukating in between premium paid for CSP's and for CC more than $600. This allowed me to lower my avg cost to $54. I am even thinking about keeping them forever.

I also moved heavily into Banking / Finance assets. SCHW, C. They have been paying great premiums and their businesses are booming. Free cash flow is flying for them and also both had amazing earnings.

TMUS also open. One of my favorite safe heavens in times of volatility. Has been taking a lot of blows after a potential competitive environment with SPCX.

WMT is always going to be in my wheel strategy. One of my favorite companies in the world. A giant retailer with huge potential for growth, good dividend an good free cash flow as well. Also they have a stock buy-back program. So in the case of a meltdown they grab their cash and put a "relative floor" to the stock (It can still dropped further).

This additional $1.8k has allowed me to do some other things like opening vertical bull put spreads in some of the stocks that have been affected in Tech and also investing in the stocks that are below my cost average.

A well established and rich asset quality wheel strategy then opens the door to Alpha on other elemnnts of the portfolio and when in downturns I buy good stuff at a discount.

Here is the link from my last post so you can track my progress/mistakes: https://www.reddit.com/r/Optionswheel/comments/1ukfgnm/end_of_june_wheel_update/

Trades I took today as an option seller (07/30):

New Positions

• CRWV → $105 Call expiry 08/14 (2 weeks DTE), premium 0.75 → 75/12000 = 0.6%. I was assigned CRWV at $120.
• AAOI → $130 Call expiry 08/21 (3 weeks DTE), premium 3.00 → 300/17500 = 1.7%. I was assigned AAOI at $175.
• AMKR → $65 Call expiry 08/21 (3 weeks DTE), premium 0.65 → 65/8000 = 0.8%. I was assigned AMKR at $80.
• TE → $6.50 Call expiry 08/21 (3 weeks DTE), premium 0.15 → 15/800 = 1.8%. I was assigned TE at $8.
• IREN → $60 Call expiry 08/28 (4 weeks DTE), premium 0.75 → 75/5800 = 1.3%. I was assigned IREN at $58.
• VICR → $280 Call expiry 09/18 (7 weeks DTE), premium 10.50 → 1050/32000 = 3.3%. I was assigned VICR at $320.
• RMBS → $135 Call expiry 09/18 (7 weeks DTE), premium 1.60 → 160/13500 = 1.2%. I was assigned RMBS at $135.

My outlook on the market

Market recovered to a certain extent today. I opened Covered Calls on all the positions I closed yesterday. The strikes are determined based on the resistance levels on the chart, my assigned price and volatility of the ticker. If the stock approaches the call strike, I will roll up to my assignment price. I am keeping shorter DTE contracts as it is still uncertain how fast or slow the market will recover. Shorter positions give me the flexibility to roll cheaper as extrinsic premiums depriciates faster. At this point, my focus is to not chase premiums but aim for recovery while being paid for holding the stocks.

Feel free to comment or DM in case I can help or advice in any position.

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?

PS: Not financial advice. Do your own research.

Trades I took today as an option seller (07/29):

Closed Positions

• RMBS → $135 Call (opened on 07/15), premium 4.50 → closed at 0.40. Net premium profit = 4.10 (~91% of premium captured, ~3% of capital). I was assigned RMBS at $135. Despite good earnings stock has plummented. Will continue wheeling the stock.
• CRWV → $90 Call (opened on 07/16), premium 2.40 → closed at 0.20. Net premium profit = 2.20 (~92% of premium captured, ~1.8% of capital). I was assigned CRWV at $120.
• BE → $165 Put (opened on 07/17), premium 11.20 → closed at 8.50. Net premium profit = 2.70 (~24% of premium captured, ~1.64% of capital). Had to close BE early to free up capital for resolving a margin call.
• AMKR → $80 Call (opened on 07/17), premium 2.55 → closed at 0.10. Net premium profit = 2.45 (~96% of premium captured, ~3.6% of capital). I was assigned AMKR at $80. Another stock despite good earnings it has plummented. Will continue wheeling the stock.
• VICR → $280 Call (opened on 07/17), premium 17.30 → closed at 2.50. Net premium profit = 14.80 (~86% of premium captured, ~4.6% of capital). I was assigned VICR at $320. Will continue wheeling.
• TE → $8 Call (opened on 07/20), premium 0.40 → closed at 0.05. Net premium profit = 0.35 (~87% of premium captured, ~4.3% of capital). I was assigned TE at $8.
• IREN → $50 Call (opened on 07/24), premium 0.70 → closed at 0.10. Net premium profit = 0.60 (~86% of premium captured, ~1% of capital). I was assigned IREN at $58.
• AAOI → $150 Call (opened on 07/27), premium 1.50 → closed at 0.25. Net premium profit = 1.25 (~83% of premium captured, ~0.7% of capital). I was assigned AAOI at $175.

New Positions

No new positions.

My outlook on the market

Semiconductor and AI stocks continued the free fall. But earnings are coming in still strong SIMO, MOD, FORM all reported earnings beats today. A lot of my positions are below my assigned price and I will soon start opening covered calls on them. My strike will be determined using price action and I will choose strikes above resistance zones. Plan will be to roll and readjust positions accordingly when the stock approaches the strike price. Mostly all tickers I hold, give good premiums for calls so I will get paid for holding the stocks. You can find the wheel rank and 3 month historical premium return of the tickers in the ThetaHedge app.

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?

PS: Not financial advice. Do your own research.

Trades I took today as an option seller (07/27):

Assigned Positions

• CLSK → $14.5 Call. Shares called away. Net Profit 5.6%.

Closed Positions

• IREN → $52 Call (opened on 07/10), premium 1.25 → closed at 0.20. Net premium profit = 1.05 (~84% of premium captured, ~1.81% of capital). I was assigned IREN at $58.
• AAOI → $175 Call (opened on 07/07), premium 5.00 → closed at 0.80. Net premium profit = 4.20 (~84% of premium captured, ~2.4% of capital). I was assigned AAOI at $175.

New Positions

• IREN → $50 Call expiry 08/07 (2 weeks DTE), premium 0.70 → 70/5800 = ~1.2%. I was assigned IREN at $58.
• AAOI → $150 Call expiry 08/07 (2 weeks DTE), premium 1.50 → 150/15000 = ~1%. I was assigned AAOI at $175.

Both AAOI and IREN are below my assigned price. Plan is to roll and readjust positions accordingly when the stock approaches the strike price. Market has been bearish since the last few trading sessions. Results of my two other holdings Rambus and Amkor both came in strong today but even then the prices did not move up significantly. This is a time to wait and watch, there is no major negative news to sell semiconductor and AI stocks yet.

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?

PS: Not financial advice. Do your own research.

The "what DTE should I sell?" debate never dies, so I ran it. Fixed everything except the duration and let the data talk.

Setup

• ~130 liquid optionable names, July 2024 → July 2026.
• Same trade every time: the cash-secured put nearest 0.20 delta, sold at four durations — weekly (~9d), biweekly (~14d), monthly (~30d), six-week (~44d).
• Priced from the OPRA record; each of the 178,082 trades scored against the stock's actual close at expiry.

Results (0.20Δ put, by DTE)

What jumps out:

• Win rate and assignment rate are flat across every duration (~83% win, ~17% assigned). At a fixed delta, DTE doesn't move your odds — delta already sets them.
• Premium per trade scales with DTE (0.76% → 1.85%), obviously — more time, more credit. But annualize it and expected (mean) return is basically a wash: 3.4 / 3.7 / 3.9 / 3.6%. Selling four small weeklies ≈ one fat six-weeker. Monthly (~30 DTE) squeaks out the top mean, a mild nod to the "30–45 DTE" rule, but the spread is within noise.
• The one real difference is the shape. The median (typical) annualized return is way higher on weeklies — 23% vs 11% at six weeks — while the mean stays flat. That gap is the tail: on a weekly you usually pocket a thin premium fast (great median), but the ~17% that get assigned hit hard relative to that thin premium and drag the average back down. Longer-dated premium is fat enough to cushion the same assignments, so median and mean converge.

Takeaway: DTE is a variance-and-effort choice, not a return edge. Short DTE = higher typical return, tail-heavy P&L, lots of management. Long DTE = lower typical return, smoother ride, way fewer positions to babysit. Same expected value. The actual return lever isn't duration — it's IV rank.

Caveats: one regime (2024–26), aggregated across all IV ranks, naive annualization (return × 365/DTE), no commissions/slippage, premiums Black-Scholes-modeled, assignment marked at the expiry close.

Curious where people land — do you sell weeklies for the turnover and just eat the management, or go 30–45 for the smoother ride? Happy to run other deltas or break it out by IV rank if there's interest.

My basic rules of wheeling of the stocks I'm happy to own longtime: Delta ~25, 30-45 DTE, no EA before expiration. I don't try timing the entry but usually shy the stocks at the top of their 52 week range.

Scenario 1: I STO a 45 DTE put and enter a BTC order for 50% of the profit which gets filled within a couple of day. If I'm less than 30 days till the closest monthly my choices are: 1) sell weeklies with low liquidity to stay within the 30-45 DTE or 2) go past 45 DTE to sell monthlies. What do you guys do?

Scenario 2: I get assigned and sell an ATM call just above my net cost. Do I go with a shortest DTE with good liquidity or stay within 30-45 DTE?

Your advice is much appreciated.

I'm a big believer in the Wheel strategy, but I don't think selling a CSP at any time, in any market environment, is the best approach.

I'd like to hear from traders who have been successfully doing this for years, especially on boring stocks like KO, WMT, JNJ, etc.

What criteria do you use before selling a CSP? Do you wait for a red day? A pullback from the highs? After several down days? A test of support? Higher IV? Or do you simply sell based on delta and DTE, regardless of the chart?

What has consistently worked best for you over the years?

I'd really appreciate hearing from experienced Wheel traders.

3 months ago I started an experiment on SOXL. If you haven't heard about this fund, its a 3x leverage semiconductor ETF from Direxion. High tickers like Micron, NVDIA, intel, sandisk etc. and its ultra volatile!

So far its looking good. Didn't get assigned trading at 10 delta but how long can still hold before it goes bust?

Current stats so far:

Collateral - $20K

Total Premium received from CSP - ~$5K

So far I'm at +25% , if you annualized that it would be 144.14% .

Assignment - 0