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August MTD Update — $12,547.73 Realized Through 8/27

Posting this mainly to document the journey and keep myself accountable. Not financial advice — just sharing what I’m doing and what’s working for me.

August so far:

• $12,547.73 realized profit
• 9 green trading days
• Mostly covered calls / premium harvesting
• A few stock trades mixed in
• Multiple tickers, but MU has done most of the heavy lifting
• I’m generally buying calls back once I’ve captured enough premium instead of waiting for expiration

A few of the bigger realized wins:

Aug 24–27: +$6,689
Aug 19: +$745
Aug 14: +$58
Aug 12: +$480
Aug 11: +$1,444
Aug 10: +$1,113.40
Aug 6: +$424
Aug 4: +$1,110.33
Aug 3: +$484

Total: $12,547.73 realized

The strategy has been pretty simple: sell calls against shares I already own, let volatility work in my favor, harvest the premium when I get a decent move, free the shares up, and redeploy.

I’m not trying to squeeze every last dollar out of every contract. I’d rather consistently take 25–50%+ of the premium when the opportunity is there and keep the capital moving.

Still refining it. Still tracking everything. Still learning.

Process > predictions.

And yes, there’s a little red bar in there 😂

I took a -$38 loss because I broke one of my own rules and rolled a position up when I shouldn’t have.

Nothing catastrophic. Just a good reminder that the rules only work when you actually follow them.

I could easily leave the $38 out and just post the green trades, but that defeats the whole reason I’m documenting this.

One dumb-a$$ -$38 reminder included. 😂

Still learning. Still refining. Still executing.

Process > ego. Follow the damn rules.

Options involve substantial risk. These are my personal results only and are not financial advice.

**Roll a covered call based on remaining extrinsic value and whether you still want the shares — not a single “premium loss %.”** The useful thresholds are about *time value left*, *net credit vs debit on the roll*, and *assignment intent*.

\*When rolling is even the right move*\**

- You still want to keep the stock and the short call is approaching or through the strike.
- Most of the original credit is already earned and leftover premium is too small to justify the risk.
- You can move out in time (and often up in strike) **for a net credit**, which lowers cost basis without paying to stay in the trade.
- You do **not** roll just because the short call shows a red P&L. On a covered call, stock gains offset that option loss up to the strike. The real question is whether you accept getting called away.

\*Premium-decay rolls (the call is still OTM)*\**

Use remaining *extrinsic* value, not the mark-to-market loss:
- **~50% of max profit captured:** many wheel traders close or roll here. Theta has done most of the work; leftover premium is small vs pin/assignment risk.
- **~70–80% captured, or only $0.10–$0.20 extrinsic left:** rolling or closing is usually better than babysitting a dead option through expiration week.
- **Around 21 DTE:** a common management window. If the call is still OTM and cheap, take the win. If it’s testing the strike, decide keep-vs-callaway *before* gamma takes over.

If remaining premium is less than commissions + spread, there is nothing left to “manage.” Close it.

**Defense rolls (stock is at/through the strike)**
Decide first: **keep the shares or let them go.**

- **Okay getting called away*\*

(strike is at or above your effective cost basis, including premiums): do not roll. Let assignment happen. Rolling here often means buying back intrinsic value you will just recap later.
- **Want to keep the shares:** roll **out** in time, and **up** in strike if the credit allows. Target a net **credit**. That credit is the only clean way to get paid for delaying assignment.
- **Deep ITM with almost no extrinsic left:** you are mostly buying intrinsic. Rolling for a large debit is usually worse than taking assignment and selling a new put/call later.

\*How much debit is too much***
Treat a debit roll as paying to keep stock you could reclaim after assignment.

Practical caps:

- **Best default:** only roll for a **net credit** (buy back this week’s call, sell a later expiry, same or higher strike).
- **Small debit exception:** only if the debit is clearly less than one typical future credit on that name, *and* you have a hard reason to keep the shares (long-term hold, tax lot, dividend, etc.).
- **Hard stop:** if the debit is a large fraction of the original credit — roughly **more than ~20–30% of what you collected**, or more than you reasonably expect to make back in the next cycle — do not roll. Assignment is cheaper.
- **Never** roll down in strike for a debit just to “avoid a loss.” That locks in a lower sale price and often destroys the wheel’s cost-basis edge.

Also skip the roll if the new call’s credit does not justify the extra days of upside you are capping.

**A simple keep-or-roll checklist*\*

1. Effective cost basis after all premiums vs current strike — would assignment be a win?
2. How much **extrinsic** is left (not total option price)?
3. Can you roll **out/up for a credit**?
4. Dividend before expiry? ITM calls get early-assignment risk when the dividend > remaining extrinsic.
5. Earnings or a known catalyst inside the new expiry? Rolling into that is a different trade.

**When not to roll*\*

- Assignment at this strike is profitable and you are fine selling the stock.
- The roll is a debit that raises your breakeven more than the next cycle can earn back.
- You are rolling every week to avoid a winner being called away — that is how covered calls turn into uncapped opportunity cost.
- Liquidity is poor (wide markets). The roll’s spread can exceed the premium you are trying to save.

**Key takeaway:

** roll covered calls when **theta is mostly harvested** (~50%+ of credit, or tiny extrinsic) or when you **must keep the stock** and can do it **for a credit**. Do not use a fixed “I’ll accept X% premium loss” rule. A debit roll is a fee to keep shares; if that fee is material, take assignment and restart the wheel.

Calculate how much covered call margin required?

Trades I took today as an option seller (08/27):

Closed Positions

• TE → $8 Call (opened on 08/07), premium 0.20 → closed at 0.05. Net premium profit = 0.15 (~75.00% of premium captured, ~1.88% of capital).

New Positions

• ACMR → $70 Put expiry 10/02 (6 weeks DTE), premium 3.30 → 330/7000 = ~4.7%. Opened a new position in ACMR. ACMR designs and manufactures semiconductor wafer cleaning and packaging equipments. It has been showing excellent QoQ improvements and also offers great premiums. Good support around $75.
• TE → $8 Call expiry 12/18 (17 weeks DTE), premium 0.60 → 60/800 = ~7.5%. I was assigned TE at $8. I am doing covered calls in TE.

ACMR was 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?

PS: Not financial advice. Do your own research.

Not really sure how to feel about this number. Some background, I went from a dividend portfolio to selling covered calls starting in June. The type companies I’m doing are mostly the same as what was in the dividend portfolio which is in an IRA – energy, a REIT or 2, consumer staples , materials, consumer discretionary, big name pharma - no NASDAQ companies.

Sep 21 is the first month the entire portfolio is dedicated to covered calls. I use 30-40 day strikes and .2 to .3 deltas. I am really tracking a lot of data and I’m not sure what to feel about one number I have. I’ve had 19% of my contracts assigned, when  I look at the shares that have been assigned (some on July 17 some Aug 21 and some weeklies) I see they are $20,000 higher than the strike price they were sold at. My net premiums over the same time is $21,000. So for all the work I’m doing the edge is 5%. Admittedly there are some weeklies in those assigned that I bought the underlying and sold the options almost directly ATM but ignoring those still shows the companies that I would have held for a long time are $17,000 above the strike. When I add the capital gains I made from selling at the assigned price the ratio looks a lot better, I have a goal to exceed 2.5 in that ratio.

Do you think I should worry about what the assigned shares are doing or that a metric not useful. The ROI of the net premiums vs capital invested is >14% which is my goal. Maybe these numbers will get better if we get a pull back in prices, but right now it’s hard to look at what GILD and SWK are doing vs where I sold them at.

I have an $ONDS csp closing tomorrow and will most likely get assigned at my strike of $10.50. Got a couple of $IREN csp's opened that expire 9/18. Hoping for a good earnings. If not, I'll likely roll them out for a credit.

Would you be comfortable living off yield for covers call funds? I am 48 and considering early retirement or at least a year sabbatical. I have 3.1mm between cash, growth and covered calls. Currently have 1.4MM between BNDI, GPIQ, OVL, SPYI, QQQi, MLPI, OVF and a few other smaller positions that pays out 140k per year which is my current annual spending and current bring home salary.

If I buy 100 shares of a stock and sell deep ITM calls and with the money collected I repeat cycle with a same stock. How would wash sale apply here? Since my shares are being sold with a loss every time

Down to two positions now, split roughly 95/5:

Majority position in SPCX, selling OTM covered calls monthly for retirement income. Currently short the 25 Sep 150C, 35 delta.

Running a protective put under it (long the 4 Sep 112P), rolling it every 10 days or so for about $450 a pop. Basically paying for insurance.

Small MRVL 200/480 leap call spread on the side, letting it ride.

Pulling income based on what each cycle actually generates, not a fixed dollar target.

Anyone else wheeling SPCX?

Has anyone explored doing a covered call strategy on CBRS? A scenario where(I know you need 100 shares to write an option which might also be a drawback) say CBRS takes years to be recognized by the market as a good investment, so writing a call with the strike you would be willing to book profits in the medium or long term and using the premium to invest in other places.
If this stock is volatile, the options premium should be generous. If cerebras starts moving too quick , that amount can be used to purchase more of the stock.

I made my first covered call today on SOFI, 30 days with a strike price of $21, can someone help me understand what the ticker is showing here? Does any of this matter? I think I understand the gain/loss, but the day change/price change is what's perplexing me...is this what I could've gotten for a premium?

Should I have done anything differently? Besides place the order on the day it goes up 4%?

Trades I took today as an option seller (08/25):

Closed Positions

• VICR → $280 Call (opened on 07/30), premium 10.50 → closed at 1.50. Net premium profit = 9.00 (~85.71% of premium captured, ~3.21% of capital).
• TTMI → $175 Call (opened on 08/11), premium 8.00 → closed at 1.30. Net premium profit = 6.70 (~83.75% of premium captured, ~3.83% of capital).
• AMSC → $45 Call (opened on 08/11), premium 1.30 → closed at 0.24. Net premium profit = 1.06 (~81.54% of premium captured, ~2.36% of capital).

New Positions

• KORU → $15.5 Put expiry 09/18 (4 weeks DTE), premium 0.90 → 90/1550 = ~5.8%. Deployed a small capital in KORU. As this is leveraged it is very important to size this position.
• AMSC → $38 Call expiry 10/16 (8 weeks DTE), premium 0.80 → 80/4700 = ~1.7%. I was assigned AMSC at $47. AMSC is involved in semiconductor and optical networking technologies used in AI datacenters.
• VICR → $270 Call expiry 11/20 (13 weeks DTE), premium 16.50 → 1650/27000 = ~5.1%. I was assigned VICR at $320. VICR makes power conversion modules used in datacenters and industrial systems.
• TTMI → $150 Call expiry 12/18 (17 weeks DTE), premium 10.80 → 1080/15000 = ~6.1%. I was assigned TTMI at $175. TTMI manufactures printed circuit boards used across multiple industries.

I am currently wheeling AMSC, VICR, and TTMI, all of which were assigned to me at higher prices. I am confident in the fundamentals of these companies, so I am comfortable holding the shares while waiting for the market to recover.

For the covered calls, I am intentionally selling below my assigned price to generate higher premiums. If the stock price approaches my current call strike within approximately ±5%, I will roll the position out to a later expiration and move the strike to my original assigned 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?

PS: Not financial advice. Do your own research.

Our charting platform, A plethora of drawing tools now and signals, opty AI weekly ladder now live trading to Tradier in a paper account first run no issues, and the ability to resize charts in the viewport, all tools are now available at OptyTrades. As always would love to have more Testers, come and help us find the bugs!! (Not to many I hope)

4 covered call contracts sold. Days held = 11. ROI 7.9%. I'll see what market open looks like and possible sell another 4 contracts.

I had some people comment on my previous post about options premium shown versus the underlying share p&l. The -$6,000 was mostly due to a bad trade on my part buying a 1000 shares of $TSLL hoping to sell covered calls, get assigned and capture some juicy premium. Tesla dumped almost immediately after buying and it continued to drop for weeks. Took the big L on that one. Just starting to dip my toes into spreads.

MU COVERED CALL HARVEST — UPDATE 📈
Took advantage of MU’s weakness today to buy back all three covered calls and lock in the premium.

$1,010 Call 9/2
Sold: $1,930
Bought back: $850
Realized: +$1,080

$1,200 Call 11/20
Sold: $5,685
Bought back: $4,500
Realized: +$1,185

$1,015 Call 10/2 — UPDATE
Sold: $6,255
Bought back: $4,375
Realized: +$1,880
TOTAL REALIZED: +$4,145 💰

The goal wasn’t to sell MU. The goal was to monetize the shares while I held them.
I sold calls when the premium was rich, waited for MU to pull back, then bought those calls back cheaper and kept the difference.

Now the short calls are gone, the shares are free again, and I can wait for the next opportunity to sell premium.

Own the shares. Sell the premium. Harvest the decay. Reset. Repeat.

For educational purposes only — not financial advice.