The wheel strategy, end to end
How selling puts and selling calls connect into one repeating income loop, and the two ways it can go wrong.
Learn the wheel strategy
Free, plain-English guides, no signup, no paywall. Read them in order, or jump to the piece you need. Every guide shows the losing path as clearly as the winning one.
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Selling cash-secured puts
Getting paid to agree to buy a stock at a price you already wanted, and what happens when it keeps falling.
Selling covered calls
Getting paid while you hold shares, and the trade-off nobody mentions: a covered call is a binding obligation to sell.
What is assignment?
What actually happens when you get assigned, whether it can happen early, and why on the wheel it is a planned step, not a failure.
Rolling options
How and when to roll a put or a call, credit versus debit, and the honest limit: rolling defers a problem, it does not fix one.
Choosing stocks for the wheel
The five-point checklist, why the fattest premium is a warning, and when a boring ETF beats a hot ticker.
Cash-secured put vs covered call
The two halves of the wheel compared, and the surprising truth that at the same strike, their risk is nearly identical.
Is the wheel actually profitable?
Yes, in the right markets, with the realistic numbers, the buy-and-hold comparison, and why backtests overstate it.
How much money do you need?
The honest answer. $500 works mechanically, and pulls you toward exactly the volatile stocks that hurt beginners.
The wheel with $5,000
What one or two positions actually looks like at $5k, a worked example, and why the stock you pick is the strategy.
The wheel with $10,000
The first comfortable tier: two or three positions, real diversification, and why survivability beats yield.
Ready to place your first trade?
Once you understand cash-secured puts, the next question is where to trade them without paying contract fees.
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