How to sell a covered call on META
A high-dollar-price name with genuinely rich premium: notional per contract is large, and the post-2022 pattern of ±10% earnings reactions keeps front-month IV elevated relative to realized between prints.
A covered call on META is 100 shares plus one short call. With META at $556.71 with 40% ATM implied vol on the Aug 28 expiry, selling the $590 call 27 days out pays $1,100 per contract against $55,671 of capital per contract — 2.0% over the period, 27% annualized if you could repeat it forever (you can't; more on that below).
The trade, priced from the chain
27d to August 28, 2026| Leg | Qty | Price | Δ | IV | Cash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buy100 META shares | 100 | $556.71 | — | — | −$55,671 |
| SellAug 28 $590 call | 1 | $11.00 | 0.31 | 41% | +$1,100 |
Every leg above is priced at the chain’s own quote — the identical number the builder will show you when you click through (last traded price), captured August 1, 2026 with a 15-minute delay. Only strikes whose print survives an implied-volatility check (within 20% of its own IV) and a no-arbitrage check across the ladder are priced here. Full methodology. Greeks, breakevens, max profit/loss and probability of profit are computed by OptionTracker’s engine at r = 4.2%. Educational analysis, not investment advice.
Yield on the capital this actually ties up
Annualized figures assume the same trade repeats every 27 days at the same premium. Nothing does. Use them to compare strikes and tickers, not to forecast a year.
How a covered call works
The position is two pieces: long 100 META shares and short one call. The short call obliges you to deliver those shares at $590 if the buyer exercises, and you keep the $1,100 premium no matter what happens. That's the whole trade — you sold the right tail of your own position.
At August 28, 2026 expiry there are three outcomes. Below $590 the call expires worthless and you keep both the shares and the premium. Above it the shares get called away at $590, for a total return of 8.0% from $556.71 including the premium. Exactly at the strike, you keep everything and a coin flip decides assignment.
Your breakeven on the combined position sits at $545.71 — spot minus the premium collected. That is the only downside protection a covered call gives you: 2.0% of cushion. It is not a hedge.
When it makes sense
- Your view is flat to mildly higher — enough drift to keep the shares, not enough to blow through the strike.
- Implied vol is at or above where META has actually been realizing. At 40% at-the-money implied vol, META is the 8th richest of the 20 underlyings on this site. A premium seller wants to be near the top of that list, not the bottom.
- You have no near-term catalyst you want full exposure to — earnings (capex guidance is the swing factor) and ad-market datapoints is where the cap hurts most.
- The buying power this consumes is capital you were not planning to deploy elsewhere before the expiry.
Where the risk actually is
The risk in a covered call is not the call. It is the 100 shares. Max loss on the structure is $54,571 if META goes to zero, versus $55,671 if you held the shares naked — the premium is the entire difference. Anyone describing this as a "low risk" trade is describing the option leg and ignoring the equity.
The other cost is opportunity. Above $590 your P/L is flat at $4,429 while the stock keeps going. On a name that gaps — earnings (capex guidance is the swing factor) and ad-market datapoints — that ceiling gets tested more often than the annualized-yield table suggests.
Early assignment is an operational risk rather than a market one: it arrives on a weekend, converts a defined structure into a stock position, and requires cash you may have allocated elsewhere.
META specifics: ladder, surface, and the implied move
The notional is the story. One contract controls a five-figure position, so a covered call here is not a starter trade and a cash-secured put ties up more capital than most retail accounts want in one name. What you get for it is a genuinely elevated between-print premium — Meta implies more vol than it realizes for most of the quarter and then makes up the difference in a single session.
META's Aug 28 strikes are $5 apart near the money (0.90% of spot). Workable granularity — though every rung you move a strike is a material change to the payoff, not a rounding. 17k contracts of open interest on Aug 28 is workable around the money and thin in the wings — width costs more here than the ladder suggests. 46 strikes on that expiry — 40% of the board — carry prints that agree with their own implied volatility and hold up across the ladder, and those are the strikes priced here. Liquid, but the dollar-wide strikes near the money mean spreads at retail width need several rungs — check the ladder before assuming a $5 wing exists.
Skew is inverted: the 25-delta CALL implies 3.8% more vol than the put. That is the market pricing upside risk above downside risk — a squeeze, a takeover rumour, or a crowded short. Selling calls into an inverted skew pays better than usual and is riskier than usual for exactly the same reason. The term structure is flat inside 1.5% between the two captured expiries, so there is no calendar edge to harvest and no event visibly priced into one month over the other.
At 40% ATM implied vol, the Aug 28 options are pricing a one-standard-deviation move of $60.16 over 27 days — roughly −10.8% to +10.8%, or $496.55 to $616.87. A short-premium structure here is a bet that 10.8% over 27 days is more than META will actually use. That is the thesis, stated honestly.
The mistake this name punishes hardest: Underestimating position size because the delta looked small. On a name at this price, a single condor's max loss is a real fraction of a retail account.
Picking the strike on META
Strike selection is the whole trade. Delta is the shorthand: a short call's delta is roughly the market's odds of finishing in the money, so a 0.30-delta call is a ~30% chance of getting called away. Here is how the bands behave on META at $556.71:
| Band | What it means | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| 0.15 – 0.20 Δ | Far OTM, ~15–20% assignment odds | You want the shares more than the income. Thin premium, rarely called away.On META: the Aug 28 $610 call at $7.45, 18% annualized |
| 0.25 – 0.35 Δ | The standard band | Best premium-per-unit-of-regret. Most systematic covered-call programs live here.On META: the Aug 28 $590 call at $11.00, 27% annualized |
| 0.40 – 0.50 Δ | Near the money, coin-flip assignment | You are half-exiting the position and want to be paid for it. Caps upside hard.On META: the Aug 28 $570 call at $18.00, 44% annualized |
| > 0.60 Δ | ITM, you're mostly selling the shares | A disguised exit order. If that's the plan, compare it to just selling the stock. |
The table below is the live Aug 28 call chain around the money on META — real deltas, real mids, real open interest from the capture. Annualized assumes you repeat the same sale every 27 days, which nobody actually achieves; treat it as a comparison unit, not a forecast.
Across the nine rungs below, the premium runs 2.4× from the cheapest strike to the richest — that curve is the whole strike-selection decision, drawn. Open interest concentrates at $600 on this expiry, which is usually where the fills are cleanest.
| Strike | vs spot | Mid | Δ | IV | % of spot | Ann. | OI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $570 | +2.4% | $18.00 | 0.43 | 42% | 3.2% | 44% | 333 |
| $575 | +3.3% | $17.12 | 0.40 | 42% | 3.1% | 42% | 288 |
| $580 | +4.2% | $15.50 | 0.37 | 42% | 2.8% | 38% | 151 |
| $585 | +5.1% | $13.68 | 0.34 | 41% | 2.5% | 33% | 84 |
| $590used | +6.0% | $11.00 | 0.31 | 41% | 2.0% | 27% | 227 |
| $595 | +6.9% | $9.00 | 0.28 | 41% | 1.6% | 22% | 75 |
| $600 | +7.8% | $9.00 | 0.26 | 41% | 1.6% | 22% | 447 |
| $605 | +8.7% | $8.30 | 0.24 | 41% | 1.5% | 20% | 312 |
| $610 | +9.6% | $7.45 | 0.21 | 41% | 1.3% | 18% | 225 |
META calls expiring August 28, 2026· 15-min delayed capture · “Ann.” annualizes the mid as a percentage of spot over 27 days.
Managing the position
- Close early when most of the premium is gone. Buying the call back at 20–25% of the credit with two weeks left beats the headline 27% annualized rate, because it frees the shares to be written again instead of pinning them for the last few cents.
- Decide the assignment question before you sell, not after. If META closes above $590, you sold at your price. That is the deal you signed.
- Decide the exit before the fill. A short-premium position with no stated profit target and no stated loss point is not a trade, it is a subscription to whatever the market decides.
- Book the loss in the same units you booked the credit. A trade that collected $120 and closed for $340 lost $220; describing it as 'a roll' does not change the cash.
Common mistakes
Chasing the annualized number
Weeklies annualize beautifully and pay you to sit on top of every earnings (capex guidance is the swing factor) and ad-market datapoints move. Higher annualized yield on a shorter tenor is compensation for gamma risk, not free money.
Ignoring the ex-dividend calendar
Even on non-payers, check for a special dividend before writing calls that expire past a corporate event.
Reading a high win rate as a good trade
A structure that wins 80% of the time and loses four times its credit when it fails has no edge at all. Expectancy is the number; hit rate is the marketing.
META covered call FAQ
How much does a covered call on META pay right now?
The Aug 28 $590 call last marked around $11.00 per share, so $1,100 for one contract against 100 shares worth $55,671. That is 2.0% over 27 days, or 27% annualized. Prices are 15-minute delayed and captured on this page's build date — open the builder for a live quote.
Do I need 100 shares to sell a covered call on META?
Yes — one contract covers exactly 100 shares, which is $55,671 at today's price. With fewer shares the call is naked, with materially different margin and risk. A long-dated deep-ITM call can stand in for the stock (a poor man's covered call), but that is a different trade with different risks.
How much is META expected to move by Aug 28?
The Aug 28 options imply a one-standard-deviation move of $60.16 — about 10.8% of the META share price — over the 27 days to expiry. That is the market's estimate, not a forecast: roughly a third of the time the actual move is larger.
Is META option skew favouring puts or calls?
Calls. The 25-delta call implies 3.8% more volatility than the 25-delta put on the Aug 28 chain — an inverted skew, usually a sign of squeeze or event risk to the upside.
Build it yourself
Everything above is one construction at one moment. Open it in the builder to drag strikes along the ladder, scrub the expiry, and watch max profit, breakevens and probability of profit recompute live against the real META chain — free, no account.
Related reading
- Covered calls on shares you already ownThe 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.
- The wheel strategy, with real numbersEveryone 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.
- Strike selection with delta and IV"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.
Other META strategies
- META cash-secured putGet paid to place a limit order below the market.
- META iron condorSell a range, buy the wings, collect if the stock stays put.
- META bull call spreadBuy a call, sell a higher one — cheaper upside with a ceiling.
- META bull put spreadSell a put spread below the market: credit now, defined risk.
- META long straddleBuy the call and the put — pay for a move in either direction.
- META long strangleOTM call plus OTM put — cheaper than a straddle, needs more move.
- META long callDefined-risk upside with a deadline attached.
- META long putDefined-risk downside, or insurance with an expiry date.
- META calendar call spreadSell the near-dated call, buy the far one — rent time twice.
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