Weeks–months
🎡 Wheeling
Generate income selling cash-secured puts and covered calls on quality names.
Read these first
- Return on capitalWeekly premium collected divided by collateral at risk — the income metric for put sellers.
- AssignmentWhen a short put expires in the money and you are required to buy 100 shares at the strike.
- Implied volatilityThe market's expectation of future movement, baked into the option's price.
Your tools, in order
- Cash-Secured PutsPuts you would be happy to be assigned on, ranked by weekly return on capital with probability of profit and breakeven precalculated.Open the tool →
- Wheel TrackerRun the wheel end-to-end: cash-secured put suggestions, assignment tracking, and covered-call income all in one place.Open the tool →
- Long TermThe investing lens for names you hold, not trade: fundamentals, valuation, and trend context so you know a position is still worth keeping.Open the tool →
- Ticker SearchOne search box into a full dossier on any name: flow, technicals, levels, news, smart-money context, FINRA short interest, and a gamma-pocket flag when dealer gamma diverges from the market regime — all in a single view.Open the tool →
First steps
- Open the Wheel Tracker — the onboarding explains the CSP → assignment → covered-call cycle.
- Run the CSP Wheel screener and shortlist two quality names.
- Check each one's suitability on its Long-Term page before selling.
The full guide
Wheeling — Income from Cash-Secured Puts & Covered Calls
Who this is for: Traders generating income by selling cash-secured puts (CSPs) and covered calls on quality names they'd be happy to own. Slower, more forgiving, and more mechanical than directional options — the edge is name selection and disciplined rolling, not timing.
The wheel cycle
- Sell a cash-secured put on a quality stock, at a strike you'd happily buy it at. Collect the premium and set aside the cash to buy 100 shares if assigned.
- If it expires worthless → keep the premium and sell another put. Repeat.
- If you're assigned → you now own 100 shares at your strike, with your cost basis lowered by the premium you collected.
- Sell a covered call against those shares, above your cost basis, and collect more premium.
- If called away → you sell the shares at a profit and start the wheel over with a new CSP. If not → keep the premium and sell another call.
The workflow in TD Pro
- Vet the underlying first. The wheel only works on names you genuinely want to own. Open the stock's Long Term Value page and check its quality score and the options suitability checklist (earnings risk, strike safety, DTE). Never sell a put on a name you wouldn't hold through assignment.
- Find the put. Run the CSP Wheel screener for high-IV, liquid candidates. Higher IV means richer premium — but only on a name you vetted in step 1.
- Check liquidity. Open the Liquidity Map to read the bid-ask spread per strike, so you don't get stuck in a wide, illiquid contract.
- Sell and track. Log the position in the Wheel Tracker — it tracks open CSPs and covered calls, roll/assign/called-away actions, cost basis, cycle income, and your win/loss stats. If you're assigned, it walks you into the covered-call leg.
- Roll or take assignment, mechanically. Near expiration, roll for more premium or accept assignment. The tracker shows cost basis and cycle income so the decision is data, not emotion.
Before you sell — the checklist
- Underlying passes the Long Term Value quality + suitability check
- You'd genuinely be happy owning 100 shares at the put strike
- Premium worth it (decent IV) on a liquid contract with a tight spread
- Cash set aside to cover assignment — it's cash-secured for a reason
- No earnings before expiration, unless you want that risk
Advanced: the poor man's covered call
Instead of buying 100 shares, buy a deep-in-the-money LEAPS call (via the LEAPS scanner) as your stock substitute, and sell shorter-dated calls against it — less capital, similar income mechanics. It's more complex; learn the basic wheel first.
Common mistakes
- Selling puts on a name you don't actually want to own (chasing IV alone).
- Ignoring earnings — a CSP across an earnings report can gap through your strike.
- Selling covered calls below your cost basis and locking in a loss if called.
- Selling illiquid contracts and getting trapped by the spread.