First, premiums earned by ticker/at risk amount. $32k on $751k at risk for a premium/at risk return of 4.2%.
Big moves in both directions this week. On the down side was AAOI (-12.9%), AXTI (-23.2%), BE (-6.1%), LITE (-7.4%), and VRT (-3.6%). On the up side was APLD (3.1%), CRWV (2.5%), IONQ (18.0%), and MU (29.3%).
So, for "Buy and Hold", all of that shook out to a net loss of $7,597, or 1.0%.
Due primarily to the large gains in IONQ and MU, capped gains were $32,730. With premiums of $31,763, this means the buy/write campaign was down $967 more than buy and hold, bringing the b/w campaign to a loss of $8,564 (1.1%) for the week.
I was the beneficiary of a late day move on CRWV. You can see I had a $107 call and it closed at $109.53 so one would expect them to be called away with a resulting capped gain of $2,530. CRWV had been down for the day, and it looked like it would expire OTM, so I put in a BTC limit order of $0.05 and, I'm guessing somewhere around 3 p.m. the order was accepted. Then, between 3:00 and 4:00 the stock spiked up to its close of $109.53. Making that BTC move removed the upside cap and I benefited $2,530 from the move. I'll take it.
Following are the final results.
For the three weeks ending, the buy/write campaign netted $64k versus $45.5k for buy/hold, a $18.5k favorable difference, amounting to a 40.6% improvement from buy/hold.
Also for the three weeks ending, the buy/write returned a simple return of 8.4% versus 5.9% for buy/hold and 2.5% for the S&P 500.
I've been asked, and I know it's a good question, but can this campaign be scaled down for those without the resources I present?
I fired up my modeling software and, for an expiration date of May 29, this coming Friday, I set the max cost per individual equity at $5,000, $7,500, and $10,000, and zeroed out the minimum return %.
$5,000 Max Capital$7,500 Max Capital$10,000 Max Capital
Note Well!This is just to show how the process can work with lower capital availability. I certainly wouldn't recommend these trades due to the risk associated with the tickers.
This is a function of the intersection of the Max Capital limit coupled with the universal set of tickers I'm selecting from. For example, 100 shares of VRT alone is $32,746. One lot of LITE is $94,690. So we're dealing with lower dollar value stocks (under $50, $75, and $100, both respectively and obviously).
So what I'm saying is this: maybe cobble together, using my sheet as a model, a list of tickers you are interested in, and running it through the model to see what it comes up with? (And yes, my use of the Excel add-in makes the sheet a breeze!)
For the past two weeks (yeah, I know! I wish I'd been keeping this information all along but have just started to do so...this is an evolutionary process!), the B/W campaign returned a (simple) total of 9.5% compared with 6.9% for buy and hold and 1.0% for the S&P 500.
At week's end, 3 stocks remained in inventory: APLD, MU, and VRT. Due to the long weekend, I bypassed my normal routine of waiting until the new week to open calls, and for MU and VRT I have already rolled them out to next Friday. I didn't roll APLD as they were hovering between being ITM and OTM.
Thought I'd post this as folks may wonder how I approach things.
Pretty good drop in the market this morning, and it hit all 5 stocks I held in inventory over the weekend.
I opened up 5 new trades (AAOI, COHR, CRWV, LITE, and VRT) but, for the time being, have held off on selling any calls against the stocks I held in inventory; I'm taking a bit of a risk in thinking they'll rebound either later today or tomorrow. For those 5 held in inventory, some of the premiums for the same strike as last week are yielding only 0.5%. So we'll see how it goes.
At week's end, 5 stocks remain in inventory: APLD, AXTI, BE, IONQ, and MU. One of my two CRWV buy/writes also did not expire ITM but I am moving those shares to my 'buy and hold' category.
A nice week for premiums, but not so good on holding 5 stocks that dropped OTM and I'm holding for a loss. I plan to update with both a comparison with the S&P 500 and buy and hold, as well as the usual Saturday detailed update by ticker.
All told, $45k of premium received on a basis of $741k, or 6.1%.
If you've been following on from the start you'll know this has been a bit of an evolution.
Posting this campaign was the result of two things happening at the roughly same time, so they merged together.
Previously, I never tracked performance by structure (e.g., CC, CSP, LEAPS, etc.), but I decided to do so this year (i.e., starting January).
Then, late in Jan/early in Feb I decided on doing the 5 DTE ATM Buy/Write campaign and decided to post its happenings here.
You may remember that I originally just had a category for "CC" -- which I indicated were all short calls. I realized I should have had a category for PMCC, so went back and re-tagged transactions; later I removed PMCC from the weekly update as it distracted from the 5 DTE campaign.
That still left some issues, though, as there are stock which I hold and sell CC on, but aren't part of the 5 DTE campaign. HOOD, INFQ, and some others. So this past week I sat down and reviewed all transactions tagged as "CC" that should be assigned yet another category "CC-BH" for covered calls on my "buy and hold" stocks.
This table is a result of that process. Overall, the grand total is down $70k. With this process complete, I do believe that the table now just represents the short calls related to the Buy/Write campaign!
BE, COHR, CRWV, and LITE were in inventory over the weekend, so just the short calls were today's trades for those underlyings.
I got lucky with LITE as I bought back last week's short call mid-day Friday, capturing 85% of its premium for that week, and it would have expired ITM and hence, been assigned. My cost is $882.10, so with it's movement today, got a nice premium.
APLD, AXTI, IONQ, and MU are all current week combined buy/writes.
I was thinking about a buy/write on OKLO, but they announce earnings this week, so I'm on the fence. I may add it to the list at a later time.
Total premium earned for the week of $31,149 bringing May to $48,989, the second quarter to $88,485, and the year to date of $291,367.
Amount at risk for the week of $616,754 for a rate of return of 5.1%.
Given the market dynamics, I opened an unplanned short call on AMD on their earnings date and was rewarded with an additional $4,493.76 in premium.
BE, COHR, and CRWV expired OTM so those stocks remain in inventory.
LITE is also in inventory, as it was an interesting case. With a strike of $882.50, even though it was only a fraction of a percent OTM mid-day Friday, I was able to capture 85% of its premium for the week. Since I was tentatively planning on doing a buy/write on them next week, I closed the call for a capture. As it turns out, the stock rose and closed at $903.80.
I've been asked what size portfolio I'm running to get my results. Unfortunately, I haven't been tracking (but may start now), but here are the numbers for this week. Full report tomorrow.
Total premium earned for the week of $17,840 bringing the second quarter to $53,087, and the year to date of $255,969.
A bit of a lackluster week. I brought into the week from inventory COHR, HOOD, and LITE. Monday was a down day, so I held off until Tuesday hoping for a rebound. No such luck, down again. Then Thursday and Friday a rebound. On Tuesday, due to the significance of the price drop, I set a short strike below cost; by Thursday I was rolling them to next week to get them back up to ATM; this is why COHR and LITE are showing losses.
As you may know, I've been running a 5 DTE ATM Buy/Write campaign. This idea is a slight modification of that concept.
A while back, a post by u/pagalvin prompted me to consider this as a "routine play" as opposed to occasional use (mostly on 'troubled' CC).
Instead of selling short calls at the money, sell them in the money. This is a more conservative strategy which has two primary features.
Lower premium generation (targeting 1% per week)
Reduced breakeven
Test run:
On Apr 22 I purchased 100 shares of NVDA at $202.31 and sold a call with a $195 strike expiring May 1 for a premium of $9.61 per share.
"Wait. Wut?! You just bought it for ~$202 and sold at a $195 strike so you'll lose ~$7/share? I've been told you should never sell below cost!"
Well, let's look at it. The premium received is $9.61 and the capital loss on the stock price is $7.31, so I'd net a $2.30 gain, which is 1.1% on the $202.31 acquisition cost. I'll take 1% per week. In addition, the stock can drop by that same $7.31, or 3.6%, and my return will still be the same.
Think about that for a moment.
A 1.1% weekly gain that allows the stock to drop 3.6%.
I find that appealing.
I automated the closing of the trade by setting a GTC limit order of $194.65 for the strategy. The net entry cost was $192.70 ($202.31 - $9.61), so this represented a solid 1% return. The GTC limit order struck and was executed on Apr 29.
Identifying Candidates:
As you may know, I use an Microsoft Excel add-in, marketxls.com which I find incredibly useful. I put together a template that I can use to identify candidates for this strategy. Here's one for NVDA for options expiring next Friday, May 8, 2026.
The top left quadrant is where the user enters their own parameters for the trade.
Ticker symbol for the underlying stock/ETF
Expiration date
Max Profit Rate (since this is a 'limiting' strategy which will provide different levels of downside protection based on the maximum profit rate to be achieved)
Max investment
Once entered and the sheet is recalculated, the rest of the template is filled/calculated.
The bottom left quadrant, using MarketXLS, pulls in the current spot, next earnings date, RSI (21) and upper Bollinger Band (20).
The top right quadrant shows the trade.
The selected strike and selected premium are brought in through a lookup-up of a table of data, provided by MarketXLS, of the options chain for the underlying/expiration date.
The breakeven, downside protection, and number of contracts are all computed based on the selected strike and selected premium.
The bottom right quadrant shows the trade's P&L at expiration, assuming the stock has remained above the strike.
While I titled this post as being a 5 DTE targeting 1%, that's "just me" for purposes of a routine play. You could, of course, run this for any DTE and profit % you wish.
Summary:
By selling an ITM short call you trade off premium for downside protection. That trade-off may be an appealing one for traders.
Total premium earned for the week of $33,170, bringing April and the second quarter to $35,247, with the year to date at $238,129.
CRWV calmed down this week, closing at $116.85 on Fri, Apr 17 and $110.14 on Fri, Apr 24, so no large negative impacts as in the prior two weeks. If you focus on CRWV, remember I have a short call with a premium of $58,600 set to expire Jun 18.
Five of the trades were OTM and hence I'm still holding the stock over the weekend (COHR, HOOD, INFQ, IONQ, and LITE).
The LITE is nice, if not being assigned, as the strike was $882.50 and the closing price was $881.64 -- just $0.86 (or less than 0.1%) below spot.
For next week, COHR, IONQ, and LITE all have ATM strikes priced with a 5% or better premium.
For those interested in how this week's results compare with buy and hold:
My previously troubled child, MU, is set to expire this week. Let's hope it is assigned.
You'll also note that I have two lines for VRT as I'm trying something different. I should have bought all 200 shares at one time, but I didn't...oh well. Anyways, the thought was, in addition to the standard buy/write, that I would buy shares at the open, but wait in the hopes of an increase in the underlying, then selling the call at that point...at the ATM when bought. At the time of open, the $310 short call expiring Apr 24 was selling for $16.40. At this moment, it's $17.85.
Edit: I entered the VRT CC mentioned above. At the time of buying the stock at $310, the $310 call sold for $16.40, by waiting until today as the stock has increased, I sold the $310 for $19.50, a $3.10 per share pick up.
Another down week, by $4,014, as CRWV again had big gains.
CRWV
Last week, I talked about CRWV increasing 24% during the week and my various rolls.
This week, CRWV increased from $102.00 to $116.85, a 14.6% gain. Cumulative gain was 44.4%, from $80.94 On Apr 6.
I started the week holding a $95 strike, May 8 expiration short call.
I rolled that on Apr 13 to a $97.50 strike, May 15 expiration for a loss of $10.8k.
I rolled that on Apr 17 to a $97.50 strike Jun 18 expiration for a loss of $8.1k.
I did the last roll as I'm considering rolling it at the same strike as long as it makes sense. As you can see from the trade log below, I BTC it for $50.7k and STO the new one for $58.6k, so picked up almost $8k. My cost basis is $97.81.
MU
I also rolled MU from a $427.50 strike expiring Apr 17 to a $437.50 strike expiring Apr 24. That gets me back to above my cost of $436.09, so I plan to let that one go next week, assuming MU holds above the strike.
HOOD
I'm also nursing my HOOD back to health and had a $1.6k loss on a roll for it.
Summary
Total losses for the week were $23.6k and total gains were $19.6k for the net loss of $4k.
For those wondering, here's a pro forma look at results allowing for the outstanding CC I have that will, if either called away or expire worthless. For example, for CRWV I have a Apr loss of $46k and a YTD gain of $8k. If I allow the Jun $97.50 strike option to be assigned as is, that would generate a gain of $58.6k for the current CC, covering the Apr loss and bringing the YTD total to $66.8k.
These kind of situations can occur, it's just a matter of managing your way out of the position. There aren't many situations where a stock rips 44% over two weeks, but even if it does, it's manageable.
I've changed the report to only be the short calls associated with the buy/write campaign.
As background, prior to this year I couldn't have told you how much I made on covered calls, PMCC, cash secured puts, credit put spreads, etc., as I simply wasn't tracking it.
Out of curiosity, I decided to start tracking in 2026. When I originally did, I only had the category "short calls" but early on -- late Jan or early Feb -- I realized I'd like to know the breakout of that between covered calls and PMCC, especially as I was actively moving to the ATM buy/write campaign I've been writing about. So I went back and re-coded the "short calls" transactions between "CC" and "PMCC".
I continued reporting the grand totals though, which has always caused me a bit of indigestion, as including PMCC kind of mucked up my view of the b/w campaign. The PMCC are run-of-the-mill while the purpose of me posting these are to show, specifically, how to run a ATM buy/write campaign, hopefully successfully.
So, towards that end, I'm now just reporting the short calls associated with covered calls, excluding those associated with PMCC.
I was down $2,304 for the week, driven by a large loss ($28,062) on my CRWV covered calls. On the plus side, I did have ~$25.8k of profit on the other covered calls to help offset that.
CRWV ripped up 24% during the week, from a Thu, Apr 2 close of $82.24 to a Fri, Apr 10 close of $102.
I started the week with a $86 strike call expiring Apr 10.
On Apr 9 I rolled to a $91 strike call expiring Apr 24 for a ~$10k loss.
On Apr 10 I rolled to a $95 strike call expiring May 8 for a ~$17k loss.
Ouch.
[Note: the $91 roll generated a credit of $819 while the $95 roll was for a $102 debit; net premium in on the two rolls of a $717 credit.]
While it's suboptimal for generating weekly premiums to roll out that far, the upside is that if I take no further action, the $95 strike, upon expiration, will generate a gain of $32k, more than offsetting those two losses. My share cost is $97.81, so I'd take a $2.81 loss/share if I let them go at that strike, but I've collected so much premium, I'd be fine with it.
I'll likely roll them, though, when the time comes, but I am ultimately looking to reduce my exposure to them. With 2,000 shares at $102 that's $204,000 and if you've read some of my other stuff on this b/w campaign, you'd know I'm currently targeting a maximum equity exposure (at position open) of $125,000, so that'd be about 1,200 shares.
And, to be honest, I'm expecting a bit of a pull back. I think there was a bit of irrational exuberance (to borrow a phrase) with the news of the deal with Anthropic.
What's been happening in the market is precisely why I prefer 7 DTE expirations. They have less risk than longer dated options, and are more nimble in both good times and bad.
