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Options writing with the arithmetic shown
Every worked example is priced off a real option chain and computed with the same engine that runs the app. Inputs are stated so you can reproduce them — including the places where a path is modeled rather than quoted.
Your covered call is in the money. Here is what getting called away actually is
Getting called away is not a glitch. You sold 100 shares at the strike the day you wrote the call. Here is that sale on a real AAPL chain, with the premium still attached.
Read the guideMore reading
- Strategy guide7 min read
Early assignment around ex-dividend is rarer than the thread
Ex-dividend week, short calls, panic. On a real KO chain the remaining extrinsic is larger than the dividend the engine implies over the whole window. Here is that comparison, and when early assignment actually shows up.
13 August 2026
- Strategy guide7 min read
Covered call vs just selling the shares: the real math
Every covered-call seller has been asked why they don't just sell the stock. Fair question. One ticker, one chain, both exits priced — including the Friday the call does exactly what you sold it to do.
13 August 2026
- Strategy guide7 min read
Your put expired in the money. Here is what actually happens
New put sellers treat assignment like a penalty. It is a fill: you buy 100 shares at the strike, your basis is strike minus the credit, and the next trade starts there. Here is that fill, priced.
13 August 2026
- Strategy guide12 min read
The wheel strategy, end to end, with real numbers
Everyone can recite the four steps. Almost nobody can tell you what a completed cycle returned on the capital it tied up. Here is one, priced off a real chain and folded by the same engine that runs our tracker.
1 August 2026
- Strategy guide10 min read
Rolling options: when it works, and when it’s paying to postpone
Every wheel trader rolls, and almost nobody prices what the roll actually did. Here are three rolls with the arithmetic shown: a covered call up and out for a real credit, a tested put defended at a real cost, and the sequence of rolls that quietly gave the whole premium stack back.
12 August 2026
- Strategy guide7 min read
Cash-secured put vs just buying the stock: the real math
Every put seller has heard it: why not just buy the stock? It is a fair question with a computable answer. One ticker, one chain, both trades priced side by side — including the scenario where the put seller regrets everything.
12 August 2026
- Tax mechanics8 min read
How the wheel is taxed: where every premium actually lands
The wheel's economics are one number; its tax treatment is four different events with four different dates. Here is a full cycle refolded the way a 1099 reads it — premium into basis, worthless expiries as gains, holding periods that stop and start — with the arithmetic shown.
12 August 2026
- Strategy guide9 min read
Cash-secured puts: what they actually pay, and what they cost
The annualized-return column is the one everybody screenshots. It is also the one that tells you least. Here is the whole ladder — return, probability, breakeven, and the loss that takes six winners to repair.
1 August 2026
- Strategy guide9 min read
Covered calls on shares you already own
The covered-call math you find online divides premium by cost basis. If you bought the stock years ago, that number is a fantasy — and it will talk you into selling a strike you should never have touched.
1 August 2026
- Mechanics10 min read
Strike selection: what delta and IV are actually telling you
"Sell the 30 delta" is the most repeated rule in retail options and nobody can tell you what it means. Here is what delta actually measures, where it stops matching probability, and how far off it gets on a high-IV name.
1 August 2026
- Opinion10 min read
Why closing expired options at $0.01 is wrong
Recording an expired option as a close at $0.01 costs almost nothing in dollars. What it does to assignment history, cost basis and your recorded win rate is a $599 hole in the middle of a wheel — here is the arithmetic.
1 August 2026
Take any of these trades apart yourself
Each worked example is a live builder link with its entry premium pinned — the PLTR 18 Sep $110 put at $4.90, the AAPL $325 call at $6.01. Open one, drag the strike, and the credit, breakeven and probability of profit move with it. No account, no wall.
Open the builderNothing on this blog is investment, tax, or legal advice. Options carry real risk of loss. All prices shown are 15-minute delayed.