The Wheel Strategy
A systematic, repeatable framework for selling premium.
The wheel is a three-phase options strategy that generates income from stocks or ETFs you would already be comfortable owning. This site walks through the complete cycle, the math, and the discipline gate that separates a sustainable wheel from a slow account death.
Most guides on the wheel stop at "sell a cash-secured put, get assigned, sell a covered call." That's the mechanic. It isn't the strategy. The strategy is the rules you use to decide which underlying, which strike, and which expirations to run — and the rules you use to refuse trades that look tempting but fail the discipline test.
Everything here comes out of running the wheel as a systematic, rule-based program through multiple market regimes. I am a dentist who sold eight practices, not a professional trader, and I write for people in the same seat — operators with liquidity who want a disciplined way to generate yield without becoming a full-time trader.
Sell a cash-secured put
On an underlying you would happily own at the strike. Collect premium. If it expires worthless, you keep the premium and repeat.
Take assignment
If the put is assigned, you now own shares at a cost basis reduced by the premium you collected. No loss. Just a different starting point.
Sell a covered call
Against the shares, at a strike you are willing to sell at. Collect premium. If called away, you exit at a profit and restart the cycle.
Start here
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How to start the wheel strategy — step by step
A step-by-step starter guide for new wheelers. How much capital you need, picking your first underlying, choosing the strike and expiration, placing the trade, and the FAQ that covers the questions every beginner asks.
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The wheel strategy, end to end
The full cycle in one read. Underlying selection, strike selection, expiration choice, capital efficiency, what to do on assignment, and how to handle a gap through the strike.
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The Repeatability Gate
A five-rule delta-discipline framework. If a trade does not pass all five rules, it is not a wheel trade — it is something else wearing a wheel costume. The rule set that keeps the strategy a strategy.
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Cash-secured puts
The entry leg. How to pick strikes, read the greeks, think about expiration cycles, and price the opportunity cost of the cash you are locking up.
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Covered calls
The exit leg. Strike selection after assignment, rolling rules, how to think about being called away, and the difference between a covered call on a stock you love and one on a stock you wish you did not own.
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Theta decay and how to sell it
The mechanic that makes the wheel work at all. Time decay curves, why weeklies are not always better than monthlies, and how IV rank shapes the premium you should expect.
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Managing assignment
Assignment is not a problem. Panicking about it is. Tax treatment, how to size it in advance, and the rules for when to sell immediately versus begin the covered-call leg.
Companion reading
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About the author
Background, operator history, portfolio of active projects, and how trading fits into the post-practice-sale capital plan.