Wheel and income
Planning covered calls and cash-secured puts across a book of up to ten tickers, how each strike is picked, and how income and returns are counted.
Wheel and income (/SPX/wheel) prices a book of up to ten tickers for selling premium. Enter the shares and the cash you hold for each: shares become covered calls, cash becomes cash-secured puts, and the book adds up what they would collect. It's the planning side of the wheel: sell puts until you're assigned, then sell calls on the shares.
The book's settings
The toolbar applies to every card unless a card overrides it:
- Cycle: weekly (7 days), two weeks (14), 30 DTE, or 45 DTE. Each card takes the listed expiration nearest that many days, the later one on a tie.
- Strike rule: how each side's strike is picked (below).
- Δ target: the delta the Δ rule aims for (0.20 by default), with quick picks at 16, 20, and 30.
- Premium: the bid or the mid.
- Min OI: skip strikes with less open interest.
- Order: your order, annualized return, or A–Z. CSV downloads the book.
Strike rules
| Rule | Put | Call |
|---|---|---|
| Δ | The strike whose |Δ| is nearest the target | The same |
| IV move | The highest strike below spot − the expected move | The lowest strike above spot + the expected move |
| 1σ | The highest strike below the historical move's low | The lowest strike above its high |
| Walls | The highest strike at or below the put wall | The lowest strike at or above the call wall |
| Confluence | The highest strike past all three levels | The lowest strike past all three |
The walls and the IV move are the card's own expiration's. When no strike sits beyond a rule's level, the rule takes the furthest one listed and the tag shows ≈. When a rule is missing what it needs (no history for 1σ, no wall on that side), the pick falls back to the Δ rule and the card says so.
Use the stepper (‹ ›) to move a pick one strike, or press a row in the strike table to pin it. A pinned strike stays for that expiration until you unpin it ("Back to 20Δ").
A card
Each card shows the ticker, spot, and chips for RSI, the IV move, max pain, and the rule in force, then a strip with the expiration, the historical move, the IV move, max pain, the walls, and the next earnings date. A pick whose expiration holds an earnings report is flagged.
For each side:
| Figure | Put | Call |
|---|---|---|
| Contracts | Cash ÷ (strike × 100), rounded down | Shares ÷ 100, rounded down |
| Income per cycle | Contracts × 100 × extrinsic value | The same |
| Return per cycle | Extrinsic ÷ strike | Extrinsic ÷ cost basis |
| Breakeven | Strike − premium | Cost basis − premium |
Income counts extrinsic value only. If a pick is in the money, its intrinsic part isn't income (you'd give it back at assignment), and the card says how much was left out. Annualized compounds the return per cycle over a year, (1 + return)^(365 ÷ days) − 1, with the simple form (return × 365 ÷ days) under it. Each pick also shows its delta, its distance, its breakeven as a multiple of the IV move, and its breach rate.
A card with neither shares nor cash is a scout: both sides are priced for one contract and kept out of the book's totals.
The book's totals
The strip across the top adds up the sized legs: capital (puts and calls), income per cycle, monthly and yearly run rates, return per cycle, annualized return, the book's delta in shares and dollars (a short put adds delta and a covered call takes it away), and how many tickers are loaded.
From here
Each pick opens in the strategy calculator. The strike selector ranks strikes for one expiration in more depth.
Free sees a sample book of three Free tickers at the defaults. Pro keeps your own book of up to ten tickers, saved to your account.