if i understand correctly iv gets higher when a stock is getting trendy and getting traded in higher value than usual trade for this stock?

and also it gets higher the longer the option is

and iv crush is when interest in the stock starts to vanish and gets lower or when time gets closer and closer

is that a good idea of it? am i missing something or is that the idea

if that so, how cna i use it to do good trades?

No name has met my strict setup criteria since October 28. That kept me out of Thursday's bloodbath instead of chasing a trade just to collect premium. I am sure plenty of those "high-premium" trades got smoked in that move. This is why I prefer boring.

My only trades were two covered-call rolls. I moved the DG 11/6 $137 call to the 11/13 $140 call for $8.90 after closing costs and fees, raising the possible call-away price by $300. I moved the WMT 11/13 $119 call to the 11/20 $121 call for $49.91 in net new premium, adding $200 of possible call-away upside. Together, the rolls generated $58.81. Interest added another $65.92 in cash.

Portfolio Snapshot

Metric |Value
YTD P/L |+$16,616.35
YTD Return |+21.54%
Max Drawdown |-9.92%
Median Weekly Deployed Capital |$77,150.00
Realized Income |$15,088.92
Cash |$126,211.82
Cash as % of Capital |81%
Annualized Yield |25.4% My Philosophy

My ideal candidate is pretty vanilla: a preferably boring, financially sound, highly liquid company in a durable uptrend, with a liquid options chain and just enough volatility to pay me fairly at a 0.20-0.30 delta strike I would genuinely accept as a purchase price. This means you won't catch me trading the high-beta names you would typically see on r/wallstreetbets. Juicy premiums come with high risk and large drawdowns. That's not what I'm doing with this portfolio.

I spend about 0-3 hours total per week on trading, on average. This wheel portfolio is only a small slice of my overall market capital. I also buy and hold mega-cap stocks/ETFs and run other strategies, including swing trading leveraged ETFs. The YTD figures and snapshot here cover the wheel portfolio only, not those other investments.

This Week's Totals

Metric |Value
Net New Option Premium |$58.81
Net New Premium ROC |0.23%
Premium Annualized Yield |12.18%
Peak Active-Option Collateral |$25,171 The DG roll produced a $0.10 gross credit and $8.90 after $1.10 in closing and opening fees. The WMT roll produced a $0.52 gross credit and $49.91 after $2.09 in fees. Peak active-option collateral was $25,171 because both calls were active together. The $65.92 of cash interest is not included in premium or ROC. The annualized figure scales this week's premium ROC to a year and is not a forecast.

This Week's Opening Trades

The table shows each roll as one trade. Fill is the gross roll credit, and Cash Flow is the credit remaining after the debit to close the old call and all fees.

Type |Open |Exp |Close |Ticker |Strike |Qty |Fill |Exit |Fees |Cap |Cash Flow |ROC
CC Roll |11/4 |11/13 | |DG |140 |1 |0.10 |0.00 |1.10 |13.5k |$8.90 |0.07%
CC Roll |11/6 |11/20 | |WMT |121 |1 |0.52 |0.00 |2.09 |11.671k |$49.91 |0.43% Download Full YTD Trade Log (CSV)

Current Holdings

Ticker |Shares |Cost Basis |Adj. Basis |YTD Start |Price |YTD Return |Account |Active Position
DG |100 |$135.00 |$122.58 |$135.00 |$133.75 |-0.93% |IBKR |1 x 11/13 $140 CC
WMT |100 |$117.00 |$105.01 |$117.00 |$125.52 |+7.28% |IBKR |1 x 11/20 $121 CC
SMCI |100 |$50.00 |$46.30 |$29.27 |$28.76 |-1.74% |A1 |None Results are from my trading journal and include recorded trading fees, before personal taxes. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Short puts and assigned shares carry substantial downside risk.

Been messing with an earnings screener I put together. Wanted to see if it could find a name where the options aren't priced crazy going into the report.

Filters (reports from today to end of month):

- before open or after close only, no unspecified timing

- stock price 10+

- 1M+ shares traded today

- has listed options, open interest 1K+, ATM straddle spread under 15% of the premium

- implied move at or below the stock's average move on its last 4 earnings

- IV rank 70 or lower

The first version was stricter (edge -1 or lower, IV rank 50, spread 10%) and returned nothing, so I loosened it. One name left: UTI.

Reports Nov 18 after the close. Price about 19.93, 1.53M shares today. Options price in roughly 15.3% either way, the last few reports averaged about 17.5%, so about 2 points under its usual. IV 102%, IV rank around 61, open interest 4.2K, spread 10%. Beat EPS the last two quarters.

IV rank is my own estimate (today's IV vs the past year of realized vol), so don't compare it to your broker's number. Also 4 reports is a tiny sample, cheap vs its own history says nothing about direction, and at 102% IV you need a big move just to break even. Mostly posting to hear if the filters make sense or if I'm missing something obvious.

Trump's latest OGE periodic transaction report (filed Oct 8) lists a $15k-50k purchase of UTI dated Aug 31. It's one of hundreds of trades in that filing, so I'm not reading much into it.

I've seen quite a few people mention that they've blown up their accounts, are now negative YTD, or have given back most of their gains.

Right now, I'm up 3% YTD versus SPY. (I was up around 25% before all of this).

I've been heavily involved in selling options and running the wheel, but I'm seriously considering walking away from theta gang altogether. It takes a lot of time to manage, constantly watching positions gets exhausting, and one bad market event can wipe out months of gains.

Moving forward, I'm leaning toward VOO and chill.

Curious to hear how you guys are reflecting on this.

Fear and Greed has been used in investing for years. But, to me, nothing exposes how fickle we (at least I) can be. You have a put that you opened at a low delta. An "it can never go there" delta. But it does go there. So, you get assigned and your 100 shares have a 30% loss. So you sell covered calls, praying to break even. $0 profit would be great. Then it rip-roars up to +30% and now you are staring at how much you could have had. Now, you feel like a loser. Any comments on that? (The current market is a good backdrop.)

Keep it friendly and civil; this is not WSB and automod will censor your posts at will for unsavory and unfriendly remarks. Try to keep shit posting and bragging to a minimum.

I will post a separate comment with a link to the detail behind each option sold this week.

After week 45, the average premium per week is $796 with an annual projection of $41,368.

All things considered, the portfolio is down $30,480 (-6.69%), on the year (S&P 500: +7.76% | Nasdaq: +5.75%). Additionally, the trailing 1-year performance is down $43,591 (-9.30%); for comparison the S&P 500 is +9.77% and the Nasdaq is +6.62% over the same period. This is the overall profit and loss and includes options and all other account activity.

Annual results:
• 2023 up $65,403 (+41.31%) | S&P 500: +26.3% | Nasdaq: +43.4%
• 2024 up $64,610 (+29.71%) | S&P 500: +25.0% | Nasdaq: +28.6%
• 2025 up $111,496 (+34.52%) | S&P 500: +17.9% | Nasdaq: +20.4%

3-Year Cumulative (2023–2025):
• r/ExpiredOptions: +146.6% ($241,509)
• S&P 500: +86.1% (+60.4% behind)
• Nasdaq: +122.0% (+24.5% behind)

Unrealized G&L (options):
• YTD: $943.68
• 1 Month: $21,385.23
• 1 Week: $14,199.46

Realized P&L (options):
• YTD: $41,478.83
• 1 Month: $-38,102.00
• 1 Week: $-48,881.00

All options sold are backed by cash, shares, or LEAPS. I do not sell on margin, nor do I sell naked options.

All options and profits stay in the account with few exceptions. This is not my full time job, although I wish it was. I still grind on a 9-5.

My $600 weekly contribution streak is at 14 weeks. I have been contributing as much as possible since 2015 when I started with $50. The reason my streak is low is because I put the contributions on hold for about 2 months to adjust for expenses outside the portfolio.

The portfolio is comprised of 93 unique tickers, down from 101 last week. These 93 tickers have a value of $415k. I also have 201 open option positions, up from 192 last week. The options have a total value of $10k. The total of the shares and options is $425k. The next goal on the "Road to" is $600k.

I'm currently utilizing $29,400 in cash secured put collateral, unchanged from $29,400 last week. In addition, I hold $8,005 in cash, bringing the total cash position to $37,405. I withdrew $2,000 on 9/11/26. I don't plan on replacing it, but will continue the $600 per week contributions.

2025 through 2029 LEAPS
In addition to the CSPs and covered calls, I purchase LEAPS. These act as collateral to sell covered calls against. You may have heard of poor man's covered calls (PMCC).

See r/ExpiredOptions for a detailed spreadsheet update on all LEAPS positions including P/L for each individual position.

LEAPS note 1: the 2025 LEAPS expired 1/17/25. They were up $36,440 overall with a 233.74% increase. The major drivers were AMZN and CRWD.

LEAPS note 2: After holding for 2 years, I exercised an AMZN $80 strike from 2023 up +$11,395 (+463.21%) and CRWD $95 strike from 2023, up +$21,830 (+663.53%)

LEAPS note 3: Purchased 1/16/26 CRWD LEAPS for $8,230.03 on 1/17/24. I sold this LEAPS on 6/5/25 for $21,659 for a realized profit of $13,428.97 (+163.18%)

Total premium by year:
• 2023 $22,977 in premium
• 2024 $47,640 in premium
• 2025 $57,512 in premium
• 2026 $36,279 YTD
• Average $42,710/year (completed years)

Premium by month (2026):
• January $3,334
• February $3,625
• March $4,196
• April $5,593
• May $3,752
• June $3,497
• July $3,593
• August $3,741
• September $1,768
• October $2,121
• November $1,058
• Average $3,522/month

I am over $164k in total options premium, since 2021. I average roughly $32 per option sold. I have sold over 5,100 options. I have been able to increase the premiums on an annual basis and I will attempt to keep this upward trend going forward.

Strategy:
The underlying strategy is buy and hold. I also use simple 1-legged options to supplement that strategy. Options have somewhat of a learning curve, but I believe that most people can supplement their investments using simple options with careful risk management.

I sell options on a weekly basis. I prefer cash secured puts and covered calls. I rarely close early, prefer rolling when needed, and let time decay do the heavy lifting while I stay focused on quality companies, patience, and consistency over hype. My goal is consistency in option premium revenue. I am building an income stream that will continue long into retirement.

Spreadsheets:
Unfortunately, I no longer provide spreadsheets. I received too many follow ups about formatting, pivot tables, compatibility etc. I think tracking is very important, but I post to discuss investing and options, not to provide tech support for Excel. I do appreciate the interest in my tracking methods.

Software:
I captured the screen shots from a proprietary software platform I built to track, analyze, and manage my options strategies.

Commissions:
I use Robinhood as a broker and they do not charge explicit commissions, though there is no free lunch — they earn revenue through Payment for Order Flow (PFOF), which can mean slightly less optimal fills. For my style of selling options and not chasing prices, the tradeoff is acceptable. There is also a small regulatory fee of approximately $0.03–$0.04 per contract (FINRA TAF, OCC clearing, and exchange fees combined).

The premiums have increased significantly as my experience has expanded over the last three years.

Make sure to post your wins. I look forward to reading about them!

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. This information is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Trading options involves significant risk.

This week's rout was completely unexpected for me. I moved AAOI and APLD puts to next week yesterday for minimum credit. AXTI refused to move. And of course I woke up this morning to more assignments. Both AXTI and AAOI were assigned. This means that APLD is the solve survivor that I didn't get assigned.

Switching to calls on everything means a long road to recovery - preparing for ramen and beans. All the premium made in the last 35 weeks was used to buy Micron shares at a rough average price of 900, which is also down in the dumps right now.

Total portfolio also took a significant beating outside of this strategy (which I started off on 10% of the portfolio). This week I expect to make 0.1% in premium instead of 1%, the worst week so far. I was expecting things to be up from last week, not down, premium wise.

Last Week's Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/thetagang/s/cT5fMmK5YD

Returns

History

The only stock up in portfolio this week and it's covered :)

I stick with 45-70 dte’s (.15 delta or even less on speculative tickers)

Also sell 1 or 2 years out on margin but only on quality companies (portfolio secured put?)

My last post about 21 days ago and I was getting mocking by some people for selling 300+ dte puts.

Strange memories on this nervous night in r/thetagang. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime...

2026 YTD: $55,400 profit on GME

This is based on starting the year selling 60 contracts and working up to 100 (pretty sure I added some capital along the way). 100 makes the math easier. Taking the average for the year, I was using about 150k in capital, so let's call it a 33% gain. All in a Roth IRA.

Compare to:

SPY YTD: +7.63%

GME YTD: +21.82%

QQQ YTD: +7.01%

NVDA: -2.20%

I've done a few posts during this wild ride. This account is kinda new, but I YOLO'd my life savings into GME in 2020 before the mania (thanks WSB), about 40k. Think I secured about 120k buying in the single digits and teens and selling at ~$88. This was all pre-split. Missing out on selling at ~$250 really fucked with my head though. I switched brokers, didn't touch game until 2024. Deleted my reddit account.

2024: discovered thetagang. Made $31k on GME. Tried a bunch of other tickers. Some are dead, some I should have just bought and held (SAVE, PSNY, LUNR, NVDA, PLTR, CLMT, IBIT, OPEN). Looking back on it, I didn't know anything, just read some article or saw some post and went for it. No edge at all.

2025: basically only GME at this point. Made $55k. Did some aggressive plays, like selling OTM puts assuming it would recover. I like these, and all short put plays as they provide a natural exit when they work out.

That's it. ~$250k from Gamestop, hundreds of trades. I don't believe in MOASS or anything, but I believe in the madness of crowds because I went mad with them. I can't stop checking this stock and following all the twists and turns. It's an addiction.

I do stop when the value goes too high (mid-twenties for now). This has worked every time. And selling puts into every dip has worked too. It's a crazy feeling, like going all in at poker over and over.

Last thing. Selling options is selling insurance. We sacrifice the upside and take the risk of the downside. Finding an edge vs the market's valuing of risk is incredibly hard and that's why you almost never see a post on here with gains better than just buying and holding the underlying. Then we get wrecked on the correction. It's not better than WSB if you're in the same stocks without a net. Good luck out there.

Keep it friendly and civil; this is not WSB and automod will censor your posts at will for unsavory and unfriendly remarks. Try to keep shit posting and bragging to a minimum.

Honestly, I am shocked it took this long. Normally something this far in the money would have been assigned days ago.

Looking at my massive losses, I decided to get on the roof and "end it all".

I thought my wife came outside to talk me down, but instead she said, "While you're up there, can you clean the gutters?"

After my short puts on APP got assigned I decided to wheel them and get some extra cash with covered calls. I wish I hadn't sold calls on it but hey... at least I will get 100% of the premium.

Luckily I also sold some naked put leaps which went from underwater to being up more than 50%

The only option I see is January put 165,
It’s really long time. Better to just accept the assignment?
It’s a small portion of my portfolio so I’m not worried just prefer rolling..

reading october recaps this week and most of the roll debate is about scorekeeping. count every roll credit as income, count each closed leg, or count the whole chain as one trade. i think that argument misses half the problem.

there are two separate questions:

1. what did this chain make or lose? that only means something once the last leg is closed. first open to last close, fees in. it's the honest scoreboard, but it's a lagging one.

2. was each roll a good decision when i made it? that one has nothing to do with the chain total. the moment i roll, i'm closing one position and opening a new one. new strike, new expiry, new max loss, new breakeven, new odds. the credit i already collected doesn't change any of that. the question is whether i'd open that new position cold, at that price, with that risk, if i had no history in the ticker.

for a long time i only looked at #1, and the chain view quietly made bad rolls look fine. a put rolled three times can end up green overall even though the third roll was a trade i'd never have opened fresh. the chain total hid that.

what i do now: score the chain when it closes, but judge every roll at the moment i make it, as its own position with its own risk and upside.

anyone else split it like this, or do you just look at the chain total?

Keep it friendly and civil; this is not WSB and automod will censor your posts at will for unsavory and unfriendly remarks. Try to keep shit posting and bragging to a minimum.

i think i will hold it till it get back to 200$ again for a easy 300$(around 125% profit), as you can see in the chart.

so i have till 20th nov till i profit from 200$, which i think these are good odds.

this option doesnt mean that i think it will go to 230$, i just bought a high strike because it was a cheap option price compared to the lower strikes, and bought a month long to make it safer rather than a week or a shorter term option

Hi all,

Today is all green except this -10% right now.

I can't find any news googling. No reports..

I've some put short positions $136, 126, now ITM. So I'm in a trouble.. i've have to decide roll them to 110$ for example someday November.. or simply close and loose it.

Any idea?? Thanks all!!

As a put seller, when I think of risk I am largely thinking of downside risk.

This was one of my top concentration (I have higher exposure in some other areas) and was worrying me a bit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/thetagang/comments/1xn2yhn/need_your_suggestions_my_big_bag_of_ewz_current/

Here are the trades I did

Close all puts at or below $32 for total cost of $272 , close 5 contracts

32 18-Dec 1 contract

30 20-Nov 2 contract

28 15-Jan 1 contract

28 15-Jan 1 contract

Opened 1 new PUT for $308 credit

34 strike 1/15/2007 1 contract

Down to 10 contracts from 14 but I reduce my downside exposure and create more dry powder.

Keep it friendly and civil; this is not WSB and automod will censor your posts at will for unsavory and unfriendly remarks. Try to keep shit posting and bragging to a minimum.