How to sell a covered call on PLTR
The retail wheel favorite: a mid-priced stock with high IV, weekly expirations, and enough open interest that cash-secured puts fill near mid. High IV is not free money here — the drawdowns are as big as the premium implies.
A covered call on PLTR is 100 shares plus one short call. With PLTR at $123.06 with 70% ATM implied vol on the Aug 28 expiry, selling the $138 call 27 days out pays $410 per contract against $12,306 of capital per contract — 3.3% over the period, 45% 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 PLTR shares | 100 | $123.06 | — | — | −$12,306 |
| SellAug 28 $138 call | 1 | $4.10 | 0.31 | 70% | +$410 |
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 PLTR shares and short one call. The short call obliges you to deliver those shares at $138 if the buyer exercises, and you keep the $410 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 $138 the call expires worthless and you keep both the shares and the premium. Above it the shares get called away at $138, for a total return of 15.5% from $123.06 including the premium. Exactly at the strike, you keep everything and a coin flip decides assignment.
Your breakeven on the combined position sits at $118.96 — spot minus the premium collected. That is the only downside protection a covered call gives you: 3.3% of cushion. It is not a hedge.
When it makes sense
- You already hold 100+ shares of PLTR and would not be upset to sell them at $138.
- 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 PLTR has actually been realizing. At 70% at-the-money implied vol, PLTR is the 4th richest of the 20 underlyings on this site. A premium seller wants to be near the top of that list, not the bottom.
- The buying power this consumes is capital you were not planning to deploy elsewhere before the expiry.
Where the risk actually is
The other cost is opportunity. Above $138 your P/L is flat at $1,904 while the stock keeps going. On a name that gaps — earnings, government contract announcements, and index-inclusion flows — that ceiling gets tested more often than the annualized-yield table suggests.
PLTR pays no dividend, which removes the classic early-assignment trigger — American calls on non-payers are almost never exercised early because exercising throws away the remaining extrinsic value.
Liquidity is a risk, not a convenience. The moment you most want out of a short-premium position is the moment the spread is widest, and the exit price you modelled at mid will not be available.
Reading the PLTR chain
The most-wheeled name in the retail options world, and the numbers explain why: a share price that makes 100 shares affordable, an implied vol in the 50s, and weeklies deep enough to roll. What the yield tables leave out is that the same vol that pays the premium has produced drawdowns that leave wheelers holding an assigned lot far above the market for months. The wheel works here — it just needs a basis you can defend and a plan for the quarter you spend underwater.
PLTR's Aug 28 strikes are $1 apart near the money (0.81% of spot). Enough rungs to express a view, few enough that each one moves the economics visibly. 30k 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. 49 strikes on that expiry — 50% 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. Retail-deep with a fine strike ladder and real weekly open interest; one of the few high-vol names where four legs fill cleanly.
Skew is inverted: the 25-delta CALL implies 2.5% 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 backwardated — Aug 28 implies 8.3% MORE vol than the following month. That is the signature of a dated event inside the front month, and it is the strongest argument for picking the expiry that sits behind it.
At 70% ATM implied vol, the Aug 28 options are pricing a one-standard-deviation move of $23.41 over 27 days — roughly −19.0% to +19.0%, or $99.65 to $146.47. A short-premium structure here is a bet that 19.0% over 27 days is more than PLTR will actually use. That is the thesis, stated honestly.
The specific way people lose money on PLTR: Running the wheel on a position size that assumes assignment is unlikely. On this name assignment is the plan, and the drawdown after it is the part people are unprepared for.
Picking the strike on PLTR
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 PLTR at $123.06:
| 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 PLTR: the Aug 28 $143 call at $3.02, 33% annualized |
| 0.25 – 0.35 Δ | The standard band | Best premium-per-unit-of-regret. Most systematic covered-call programs live here.On PLTR: the Aug 28 $138 call at $4.10, 45% 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 PLTR: the Aug 28 $134 call at $5.10, 56% 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 PLTR — 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.
From the far strike to the near one, the premium below moves by a factor of 1.7. Where you sit on that curve is the trade. Open interest concentrates at $134 on this expiry, which is usually where the fills are cleanest.
| Strike | vs spot | Mid | Δ | IV | % of spot | Ann. | OI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $134 | +8.9% | $5.10 | 0.36 | 70% | 4.1% | 56% | 541 |
| $135 | +9.7% | $5.00 | 0.35 | 70% | 4.1% | 55% | 450 |
| $136 | +10.5% | $4.50 | 0.33 | 70% | 3.7% | 49% | 113 |
| $137 | +11.3% | $4.25 | 0.32 | 70% | 3.5% | 47% | 111 |
| $138used | +12.1% | $4.10 | 0.31 | 70% | 3.3% | 45% | 162 |
| $139 | +13.0% | $3.70 | 0.29 | 70% | 3.0% | 41% | 423 |
| $141 | +14.6% | $3.35 | 0.27 | 71% | 2.7% | 37% | 146 |
| $142 | +15.4% | $3.15 | 0.26 | 70% | 2.6% | 35% | 71 |
| $143 | +16.2% | $3.02 | 0.24 | 70% | 2.5% | 33% | 336 |
PLTR calls expiring August 28, 2026· 15-min delayed capture · “Ann.” annualizes the mid as a percentage of spot over 27 days.
Managing the position
- Decide the assignment question before you sell, not after. If PLTR closes above $138, you sold at your price. That is the deal you signed.
- Track the cost basis, not just the premium. Every call you write against the same lot lowers effective basis — the number that matters is total return on the position, which is why our tracker adjusts basis per cycle.
- Roll for a credit or do not roll. A roll that costs money is a new trade financed by refusing to book a loss on the old one, and the accounting hides that from you.
- Keep a ledger of realized credit per underlying, not per trade. The wheel and the covered call are multi-quarter programs and the per-trade view flatters them.
Common mistakes
Selling calls on shares you're not willing to lose
If getting called away at $138 would make you chase PLTR back, you were never neutral. Write against a lot you'd happily sell, or don't write.
Chasing the annualized number
Weeklies annualize beautifully and pay you to sit on top of every earnings move. Higher annualized yield on a shorter tenor is compensation for gamma risk, not free money.
Sizing against buying power
Margin requirement is what the broker will let you do, not what you should do. The relevant limit is the loss you can absorb without changing the plan.
PLTR covered call FAQ
How much does a covered call on PLTR pay right now?
The Aug 28 $138 call last marked around $4.10 per share, so $410 for one contract against 100 shares worth $12,306. That is 3.3% over 27 days, or 45% annualized. Prices are 15-minute delayed and captured on this page's build date — open the builder for a live quote.
What happens if PLTR closes above the strike?
Your 100 shares are sold at $138 and you keep the premium. Total return from $123.06 works out to 15.5% — $1,904 per contract — and you are flat PLTR on Monday.
How much is PLTR expected to move by Aug 28?
The Aug 28 options imply a one-standard-deviation move of $23.41 — about 19.0% of the PLTR 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.
How wide are PLTR option strikes?
About $1 apart near the money on the Aug 28 expiry — 0.81% of the share price per rung. That sets how precisely you can place a short strike, and how granular a spread's width can be.
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 PLTR 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 PLTR strategies
- PLTR cash-secured putGet paid to place a limit order below the market.
- PLTR iron condorSell a range, buy the wings, collect if the stock stays put.
- PLTR bull call spreadBuy a call, sell a higher one — cheaper upside with a ceiling.
- PLTR bull put spreadSell a put spread below the market: credit now, defined risk.
- PLTR long straddleBuy the call and the put — pay for a move in either direction.
- PLTR long strangleOTM call plus OTM put — cheaper than a straddle, needs more move.
- PLTR long callDefined-risk upside with a deadline attached.
- PLTR long putDefined-risk downside, or insurance with an expiry date.
- PLTR calendar call spreadSell the near-dated call, buy the far one — rent time twice.
Covered Call on other tickers
- SPY covered call
- QQQ covered call
- IWM covered call
- AAPL covered call
- NVDA covered call
- TSLA covered call
- MSFT covered call
- AMZN covered call
- META covered call
- GOOGL covered call
- AMD covered call
- NFLX covered call
- COIN covered call
- SOFI covered call
- F covered call
- KO covered call
- DIS covered call
- BA covered call
- INTC covered call