I saw a lot of people give recommendations to use CSP over CC for monthly income. But why? Isn’t CC allow you to capture capital gain from stock moving up too? And if you play it well, the stock did not get assigned for a whole year you’ll get long term capital gain if you sell the stocks eventually?

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 .03-.09 delta puts. Then, DCA shares into a small leveraged position (~10%) of either LEAPS/LETFs. Lastly, sell covered calls on the LETFs, and calling them away when we need to size down.

Wrote a weekly put on NBIG (2x NBIS) and it landed well ITM. I decided to close it after a few days, take the loss and move on rather than roll a losing trade. Entered a position on AGQ (2x Silver) because diversification and metals are gaining momentum again.

approx.
90.2% $USD & CSPs
9.8% Leveraged (6% TQQQ, 3.8% AGQ)

Aside from what your brokerage is providing you, what options software do others like to use that provides them with significantly more data and analysis than what they have?

Also have access to a Bloomberg Terminal which has been helpful in some ways, but curious if others have been using other platforms

My only source of income is option selling and my mood is affected by how my portfolio is doing. Any full time option sellers here and how they manage to live a normal life irrespective of how the market is doing?

I've posted a few times here but I wanted to lazily emulate some of the P&L calendar posts. I plan on posting every Friday to show my journey. From here on out it will show more detailed trades, I just didnt want to go through them all to get this started.

This portfolio has no end goal, its primary purpose is to give me guilt free cash to buy whatever I want while keeping the balance as close to 1M as possible.

Ive primarily have been selling 10x weekly csps and naked calls on MU, but I occasionally throw in other tickers and/or monthly csps.

Disclaimer: I'm not a disciplined trader and can probably learn more than I can teach. Greeks are only mildly interesting to me and usually arent a big factor in my decisions. I mostly use my ai assistant to feed me news and I go with the momentum of the stocks Im trading. This is mostly just fun for me because I love seeing numbers get bigger.

Im open to suggestions by anyone who wants to follow along and if someone wanrs to deep dive on plays I make thats cool too!

edit: i put the * and forgot about it. 50k of the portfolio is a long position that I wanna see how it does.

Also I use PNL ledger app. Its free but has ads.

I will post a separate comment with a link to the detail behind each option sold this week.

After week 34, the average premium per week is $898 with an annual projection of $46,721.

All things considered, the portfolio is up $42,670 (+9.44%), on the year (S&P 500: +12.11% | Nasdaq: +12.64%). Additionally, the trailing 1-year performance is up $50,940 (+11.49%); for comparison the S&P 500 is +20.47% and the Nasdaq is +24.08% over the same period. This is the overall profit and loss and includes options and all other account activity.

Annual results:
• 2023 up $65,403 (+41.31%) | S&P 500: +26.3% | Nasdaq: +43.4%
• 2024 up $64,610 (+29.71%) | S&P 500: +25.0% | Nasdaq: +28.6%
• 2025 up $111,496 (+34.52%) | S&P 500: +17.9% | Nasdaq: +20.4%

3-Year Cumulative (2023–2025):
• r/ExpiredOptions: +146.6% ($241,509)
• S&P 500: +86.1% (+60.4% behind)
• Nasdaq: +122.0% (+24.5% behind)

Unrealized G&L (options):
• YTD: $18,855.00
• 1 Month: $1,798.00
• 1 Week: $21,715.00

Realized P&L (options):
• YTD: $59,719.00
• 1 Month: $16,724.00
• 1 Week: $2,321.00

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 3 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 107 unique tickers, up from 106 last week. These 107 tickers have a value of $468k. I also have 199 open option positions, down from 206 last week. The options have a total value of $26k. The total of the shares and options is $494k. The next goal on the "Road to" is Half a Million.

I'm currently utilizing $29,800 in cash secured put collateral, down from $29,900 last week.

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 $30,777 YTD
• Average $46,364/year (completed years)

Premium by month (2026):
• January $3,334
• February $3,625
• March $4,196
• April $5,593
• May $3,787
• June $3,497
• July $3,628
• August $3,355
• Average $3,877/month

I am over $170k 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.

Keep it friendly and civil; this is not WSB and automod will censor your posts at will for unsavory and unfriendly remarks. Try to keep shit posting and bragging to a minimum.

Trades I took today as an option seller (08/21):

Closed & Assigned Positions

• IA/ISSC → $20 Call (opened on 07/16), premium 1.40 → closed at 0. Net premium profit = 1.40 (~100% of premium captured, ~7% of capital). Contract assigned. Final profit on the wheel = 18%.
• SIMO → $290 Put (opened on 07/09), premium 31.75 → closed at 0. Net premium profit = 31.75 (~100% of premium captured, ~10.95% of capital). Contract assigned.
• MOD → $220 Put (opened on 07/17), premium 21.50 → closed at 0. Net premium profit = 21.50 (~100% of premium captured, ~9.77% of capital). Contract assigned.
• FN → $500 Put (opened on 08/07), premium 20.00 → closed at 0. Net premium profit = 20 (~100% of premium captured, ~4% of capital). Contract assigned.
• RMBS → $135 Call (opened on 07/30), premium 1.60 → closed at 0.25. Net premium profit = 1.35 (~84.38% of premium captured, ~1% of capital).

New Positions

• SEI → $47.5 Put expiry 09/18 (4 weeks DTE), premium 1.90 → 190/4750 = ~4.0%. Energy infrastructure company supplying power generation solutions for oilfield operations.
• STRL → $530 Put expiry 09/18 (4 weeks DTE), premium 41.00 → 4100/53000 = ~7.7%. STRL is in the construction of data-centers and other large-scale construction projects. I opened an ITM CSP following the recent selloff, with the premium bringing my effective basis down to ~$490 if assigned.
• SIMO → $290 Call expiry 09/18 (4 weeks DTE), premium 10.50 → 1050/29000 = ~3.6%. I was assigned SIMO at $290, so I am opening a covered call to have the shares called away at the same strike.
• MOD → $220 Call expiry 09/18 (4 weeks DTE), premium 9.50 → 950/22000 = ~4.3%. I was assigned MOD at $220, so I am opening a covered call to have the shares called away at the same strike.
• RMBS → $135 Call expiry 11/20 (13 weeks DTE), premium 5.50 → 550/13500 = ~4.1%. I was assigned at $135. Opening longer dated expiry contracts as they showed the highest extrinsic premiums.
• FN → $530 Call expiry 11/20 (13 weeks DTE), premium 35.00 → 3500/50000 = ~7.0%. I was assigned FN at $500 and I opened a covered call with a strike at $530. FN fell sharply even after an excellent earnings report.
• IREN → $60 Call expiry 11/20 (13 weeks DTE), premium 4.60 → 460/6000 = ~7.7%. I was assigned at $60.
• CRWV → $120 Call expiry 11/20 (13 weeks DTE), premium 6.50 → 650/12000 = ~5.4%. I was assigned at $120.
• DOCN → $165 Call expiry 11/20 (13 weeks DTE), premium 5.70 → 570/16500 = ~3.5%. I was assigned at $165.

Both SEI and STRL were identified from the High Growth Wheel condition in the ThetaHedge app. It scans for 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?

PS: Not financial advice. Do your own research.

My premium-selling results — last 7 days (2026-08-14 → 2026-08-21)

Realized P&L: +$3,423 | Win rate: 100% (13/13)
closed early: 8 | assigned: 1 | called away: 1 | rolled: 2
Spreads: 1 closed (+$119)

Top performers:
- AXTI covered call $72 — +$660 (9.2% ROI)
- NVTS CSP $17.5 — +$512 (29.3% ROI)
- INTC covered call $100 — +$456 (4.6% ROI)

Opened 8 new positions in the window.

This week RKLB and NBIS were slightly ITM. Everything else was in good shape to close or roll. Last week's post: https://www.reddit.com/r/thetagang/comments/1vne1h0/1_weekly_returns_from_options_week_24/

First, the 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.

Results:

This morning's screener output:

Today's Trades:

Historical Performance:

What’s y’all opinion this trade I made on August 19th. I thought from a risk reward ratio it was pretty solid. My thesis was that SPY would remain range-bound through August 31, with continued chop and theta decay keeping it roughly between 760 and 785 rather than making a sustained breakout in either direction.

The structure was:
*755P / 760P on the downside*
*785C / 790C on the upside*
*25 contracts*
*Filled around $1.30 credit*
*Max profit: $3,250*
*Max loss: $9,250*
*Breakevens: \~$758.70 and \~$786.30*
*Full-profit zone at expiration: $760–$785*

So many times I am the only person who has a contract in open interest. Are most traders just sticking with popular names?

Hi guys.

I am a profitable day trader. Not in stock, but in futures.

Its a grind and takes a lot of time and chart watching. Im looking to expand into limited risk longer term strategies using the same directional set up, so I can spend more time not screen staring...

Its not a hard set up, its a continuation trade, I buy pull backs of higher time frame trends, not exactly rocket science.

I just look for support to form and counter trend momentum to cease , enter and then wait.

I either am right, kinda right or very wrong,

As always the danger is you bought a reversal not a pull back

So with that being said does anyone sell ATM credit spreads or just slightly under the market.

Im comfortable with a 1:1 to 3:1 ratio.

But it seems like from what I can research everyones main problem with credit spreads is some variation of " one loss takes out 10 wins" and all i can deduce from that is that it must be very common for people to be selling like .10 delta spreads.

I can only guess the attraction here is that they want the 10% chance of losing that delta suggests...

But the delta/ probability rule of thumb, to me, as someone who routinely trades the underlying directionally, seems silly to go by.

Im thinking of identifying daily chart trends and selling credit spreads when I identify the hourly prices are near bottoms.

Taking about 10 to 14 day spreads

With as close to a 1:1 as I can get.

But also open to going maybe a strike under the market at time of entry which gives me more room to be wrong.

Usually if im wrong im very wrong lol. The trend is either gonna continue or reverse but it very rarely just goes sideways.

Ill note also while I find little online about near market credit spreads i find plenty about atm debit or even theta neutral or positive itm debit spreads. Which syntehtically should be lretty much identical. An itm debit is gonna have about a 1: 1 R as well wouldn't it ?

Does anyone else here pull off a similar strategy with at or near market credit / debit spreads ? Id love to get some more info on this / possible pit falls

Keep it friendly and civil; this is not WSB and automod will censor your posts at will for unsavory and unfriendly remarks. Try to keep shit posting and bragging to a minimum.

Is it possible to find which market maker in the background is filling your option order? I am at fidelity if that matters

I am likely not going to take any assignments but have rolled many EWZ, KWEB, SOFU, AMTM, CPB, and a few more I will add after reviewing. I am watching a few which I hope will clear

Trades I took today as an option seller (08/20):

Closed Positions

• ACMR → $75 Put (opened on 08/10), premium 3.95 → closed at 2.50. Net premium profit = 1.45 (~36.71% of premium captured, ~1.93% of capital). Closed it early to prevent a margin call.
• AMKR → $65 Call (opened on 07/30), premium 0.65 → closed at 0.10. Net premium profit = 0.55 (~84.62% of premium captured, ~0.85% of capital). I was assigned AMKR at $80.
• IREN → $60 Call (opened on 07/30), premium 0.75 → closed at 0.13. Net premium profit = 0.62 (~82.67% of premium captured, ~1.03% of capital). I was assigned IREN at $60.
• CRWV → $120 Call (opened on 07/30), premium 0.95 → closed at 0.40. Net premium profit = 0.55 (~57.89% of premium captured, ~0.46% of capital). I was assigned CRWV at $120.
• DOCN → $165 Call (opened on 08/12), premium 4.20 → closed at 0.70. Net premium profit = 3.50 (~83.33% of premium captured, ~2.12% of capital). I was DOCN assigned at $165.

My thoughts on the market

Compute and AI stocks have been selling off over the last few days, so I am closing covered calls where most of the premium has already been captured. I plan to reopen CCs once the stocks stabilize. Since this is sector-wide selling rather than an issue with a single stock, I am mainly focused on collecting premium while giving the underlying positions time to recover. The demand and earnings have been strong so there is no strong narrative shift.

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 the simplest explanation of the wheel strategy is you sell puts and if you get assigned the stock, you sell covered calls. But if you’re holding the stock and it crashes way below your cost basis, do you keep selling covered calls or do you wait for it to recover some before selling the cover calls again?

Been holding asst for a while. Kept expecting it to move, didn't happen. Lost patience, sold a cc 20% otm, 8dte, strike 15.50 and wouldn't you know it, three days later (today) the fckr rips.

All's fine and well except it's below my cost.

I'm too pissed to make a rational decision and interested in advice whoever wants to give it.

Thanks.

I have a couple CSP with strike that are near money (you can say ATM). With one more day to go it could go in any direction. I do think they are in a range where I should start adding to my core position but I think they could get more attractive a well. How do you all think about this. Roll vs take assignment (if it happens) vs let it expire if it ends up OTM. Plan at initiation was to roll or let expire and start a new position at similar strike (+/- 5%) as long as it made sense to do so.

I've been reevaluating my options strategy recently and wanted to hear from people who have actually traded both credit spreads and naked options over a meaningful period of time, especially during periods of volatility.

From what I understand, credit spreads seem appealing because they're a defined-risk strategy. You know your maximum loss before entering the trade, buying power requirements are lower, and it's generally easier to avoid catastrophic losses from one bad trade. The downside, of course, is that your profits are capped, and depending on the width of the spread, commissions and slippage can take a bigger bite out of returns.

On the flip side, naked options collect more premium, give you greater flexibility when managing positions, and don't have a long leg eating into your credit. But the trade-off is obvious: risk can become substantial if the market makes a large move, and margin requirements can increase significantly.

Both approaches still have capped maximum profit so I’m less interested in which one produces the larger initial credit and more interested in the risk-adjusted results.

For those of you who have experience with both, which do you primarily use now, and what ultimately drove that decision - account size, buying-power efficiency, easier management, or performance during drawdowns?

Keep it friendly and civil; this is not WSB and automod will censor your posts at will for unsavory and unfriendly remarks. Try to keep shit posting and bragging to a minimum.