Strategy
Sell a put and set aside the cash to buy 100 shares per contract at the strike. Keep the premium either way; if the stock closes below the strike at expiry, you buy the shares at an effective discount.
Contract
Use the bid (or mid) shown on your broker's option chain.
1 contract = 100 shares
What you paid for the shares — defaults to the current price.
Shown next to the option on most broker chains. Only used to estimate assignment odds — leave blank to skip.
Results
Annualized return on capital
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Updates as you type — use current quotes from your broker
Show the math
Profit and loss per share at expiration. The dashed line is zero P/L; the dot marks your breakeven.
How It Works
Cash-secured put
You sell someone the right to sell you 100 shares at the strike price, any time up to expiration, and you hold enough cash to honor it — strike × 100 per contract. In exchange you collect the premium up front. If the stock finishes above the strike, the put expires worthless and the premium is your profit. If it finishes below, you're assigned: you buy the shares at the strike, but your effective cost basis is strike − premium — lower than the strike, though possibly still above the market price.
Covered call
The mirror image: you own 100 shares per contract and sell someone the right to buy them at the strike. You keep the premium no matter what. If the stock finishes above the strike your shares are called away — you realize the gain up to the strike plus the premium, but give up anything beyond it. If it finishes below, you keep the shares and the premium lowers your effective cost basis.
Why "the wheel"
Run in sequence they form a loop: sell puts until you're assigned shares, then sell calls against those shares until they're called away, then start over. Each turn of the wheel collects premium; the risk is that you're effectively long the stock the whole time — the strategy does not protect you from a falling market, it only cushions the fall by the premium collected.
About the assignment odds
If you enter the option's implied volatility, the calculator estimates the option's delta with the Black–Scholes model, which is close to the risk-neutral probability the option expires in the money. It is an approximation, not a guarantee — real assignment also depends on early exercise (dividends, deep ITM puts), and delta itself moves constantly with the underlying price and implied volatility. Your broker's chain shows delta directly; if the two disagree, trust your broker.