💰 Premium Stacker

What to Look For

The specific numbers that separate a tradeable setup from a trap.

The 5 green-light filters

The instant deal-breakers

• Earnings in the window. Binary event risk. Skip unless you're specifically trading the IV crush.
• Stock you'd hate to own. If you get assigned, you own 100 shares. Only sell puts on names you'd be fine holding.
• IVR under 30. Premium too cheap for the risk. Wait for better conditions.
• Tradeability Score under 50. The scanner has already told you it's a weak setup.

Basics & Greeks

What you're actually doing when you sell a put, and the four numbers that matter.

The one-sentence version

You sell someone the right to force you to buy 100 shares at a specific price (the strike) by a specific date (expiration), and they pay you cash upfront (the premium) for that right.

If the stock stays above your strike, the option expires worthless and you keep the premium. If it drops below, you buy 100 shares at that price — at an effective discount equal to the premium you already collected.

The four Greeks you need

Why weeklies (4–7 DTE)?

• Theta accelerates near expiration — you collect a disproportionate amount of decay in the final week.
• Less time for things to go wrong — 5 days vs. 30 is a much narrower window for surprise drops.
• High annualized return — $80/week on $20,000 is 0.4%, but 40× a year is ~16% annualized.
• Capital turns over fast — positions resolve quickly, freeing buying power for the next setup.

EV & position sizing

Expected Value (EV) is the average outcome if you made the trade thousands of times. Raw EV per trade is often slightly negative because assignment is a large loss — the edge comes from frequency, high win rate, and exit discipline.

Position sizing: one contract requires buying power to own 100 shares at the strike. A $200 strike = $20,000 at risk. Never put more than 5% of your portfolio into a single position. Start with 1 contract per trade.

Reading the Scanner

What each column means and how to use them together.

Column guide

• Tradeability Score — composite 0–100 combining IVR, probability of profit, and premium quality. Sort by this first.
• IVR — IV Rank 0–100. Above 60 is great. Below 30, skip it.
• Premium — mid-price × 100 = dollars collected per contract.
• Delta — lower = safer. 0.15 conservative, 0.25 aggressive.
• Spread — ask − bid. Tight (<$0.15) = liquid, won't get slipped on entry.
• Prob% — probability the option expires worthless. You want 70%+.
• Theta — daily time decay in dollars per contract. Higher = better for you.
• Rating — Strong / Good / Fair / Weak — a quick label from the score.

Plan Mode (click any row)

• Theta clock — shows how much decay you capture per day. Back-loaded trades collect most theta in the last 1–2 days.
• Stress test — simulates P&L if the stock drops 5%, 10%, or 15% before expiration.
• Tags — setup quality signals (IVR Spike, Tight Spread, Near Support). Pattern labels, not buy signals.

Strike Finder

The toolbar's Strike Finder compares multiple strikes on the same ticker side by side — safer OTM vs. closer higher-premium. Use it to dial in exactly the strike that matches your risk tolerance.

Managing Trades

Entry is easy. Discipline on exits is what keeps you profitable.

Using your history to build edge

Every closed position lives in the History tab. Review it monthly:

• Win rate: 70–80% is normal at 0.20 delta. Below 60% means deltas too high or stocks too volatile.
• Avg win vs. avg loss: win small frequently, lose large rarely. If avg loss >3× avg win, stop-loss discipline needs work.
• Best tickers: some names are consistently good put-selling candidates. Others gap down and hurt. Let the data decide.

The Backtest tab replays your filter settings over the past year — calibrate filters before going live, not as a guarantee.

Good vs Bad Setups

Side-by-side. When in doubt, check your candidate against these.

The single most common mistake

Chasing a big premium without looking at why it's big. Fat premium on low IVR usually means delta is too high or the stock is about to report earnings. Always check IVR and the calendar before you pull the trigger.

Cheatsheet

Everything you need, on one screen. Print it, bookmark it, tape it to your monitor.

The full workflow in 30 seconds

1. Scan Now → sort by Tradeability Score.
2. Filter: IVR ≥ 50, Delta 0.15–0.22, Prob ≥ 70%, Spread < $0.15.
3. Skip earnings. Skip names you wouldn't own.
4. Click row → review Plan Mode → sell put in broker.
5. Set take-profit at 50%, stop-loss at 2×, DTE alert at 1.
6. Log it in Positions. Review History monthly.

Options Simulator

Learn to sell puts and covered calls by actually doing it — synthetic stocks, real math, no real money.