User Guide

OptyTrades helps you find the best stocks for the wheel strategy — a popular options income strategy that involves selling cash-secured puts (CSPs) and covered calls (CCs) on high-quality stocks. If you're new to the wheel, our methodology page explains the strategy in detail.

Quick-start: Your first 5 minutes

The screener is the main tool. It scans the market in real-time and presents you with a ranked table of stocks scored for the wheel strategy.

What each column means

Sorting the table

Click any column header to sort. Click again to reverse the order. A small triangle shows the current sort direction. By default, stocks are sorted by score with the highest first.

Market Health Banner

At the top of the screener, a Market Health banner shows the current regime for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite. Each index is classified by comparing its price to its 50-day and 200-day moving averages:

• 📈 Bull
  — Price above 50-day SMA, which is above 200-day SMA. The broader market is in an uptrend. CSP signals can be trusted — pullbacks are more likely to be buying opportunities.
• ⚠️ Caution
  — Price is between the two moving averages or they are crossing. Market is uncertain. Consider tightening your deltas (more conservative strikes).
• 📉 Bear
  — Price below both moving averages. The broader market is in a downtrend. Be cautious with CSPs — covered calls may be the better strategy.

The Bias badge on the right summarizes the overall market posture: “CSPs Favored” when both indices are bullish, “CCs Favored — Caution on CSPs” when both are bearish, and “Mixed — Tighten Deltas” in between. This is a soft influence — it doesn't override individual stock analysis, but it helps you calibrate your overall aggression.

The filter bar at the top of the screener lets you narrow results to stocks that match your specific criteria.

Click Screen to apply your filters, or Reset to go back to defaults.

Click any stock in the screener table and a detail panel slides open from the right. This is where the real analysis lives. Here's what you'll see from top to bottom:

Stats grid

At the top, you'll see the key stats at a glance: Wheel Score, Tier 2 Grade (Options Grade), price with today's change, capital required, beta, dividend yield, P/E ratio, market cap, and the 52-week high and low.

Analysis cards

Below the stats, you'll see several analysis cards. Each one provides a different perspective on the stock:

Press ESC or click the × button to close the detail panel. You can also click outside the panel to close it.

OptyTrades uses two complementary scoring systems. Think of them as answering two different questions:

Wheel Score (0–100%)

“Is this a good stock for the wheel strategy?”

This is the percentage shown in the screener table. It evaluates 8 fundamental factors: volume, beta, price range, market cap, dividend yield, 52-week position, P/E ratio, and analyst rating. It tells you how well the stock fits the wheel strategy — regardless of current market conditions.

Options Grade (A+ through F)

“Is right now a good time to trade options on this stock?”

This letter grade appears in the stock detail view. It evaluates current market conditions: implied volatility, options liquidity, bid-ask spreads, financial health, bankruptcy risk, analyst consensus, earnings trajectory, dividend safety, and institutional ownership. It tells you how favorable the options market is right now.

How to use both together

Score Breakdown

At the bottom of the detail view, you'll find the Score Breakdown section. This shows every individual factor that went into both scores — with the points earned, the maximum possible, and a bar chart showing the percentage. Look for red bars to quickly spot weak areas.

Click Deep Analysis at the bottom to see an AI-generated summary of the stock's strengths, concerns, and an overall verdict.

Entry signals answer the most important question: “Should I open a trade on this stock right now?”

Each stock gets two independent signals — one for selling puts (CSP) and one for selling calls (CC). They analyze delayed technical indicators to determine optimal entry timing.

Signal colors

How CSP & CC signals differ

CSP and CC signals use the same five indicators but read them in opposite directions:

Each indicator contributes a score. The total score determines the signal color and confidence level. A score of −6 or lower gives a Strong Green CSP signal; +6 or higher gives a Strong Green CC signal. Scores near zero produce a yellow (neutral) signal.

Trend regime analysis

In addition to the five core indicators above, each signal is modified by the stock's trend regime. The system analyzes 12 months of price history, identifies swing highs and swing lows, and classifies the stock into one of three regimes:

• 📈 Uptrend
  — Higher highs and higher lows. Pullbacks are buying opportunities. CSP signals get a boost (+2 to +3 pts). The wheel works best here — if assigned, you own shares in a stock that's trending higher.
• ↔️ Sideways
  — No clear directional trend; price oscillates in a range. CSPs get a small boost (+1), and CCs get a significant boost (+2) because the stock keeps bouncing between support and resistance — ideal for selling premium on both sides.
• 📉 Downtrend
  — Lower highs and lower lows. CSP signals get penalized heavily (+3 to +4 pts toward red) because you'd be catching a falling knife. CC signals also get a slight penalty since your shares are declining.

SMA(50) and SMA(200) alignment is used to confirm or override ambiguous swing patterns. You'll see the trend regime badge in the Trend & Support/Resistance card in the stock detail view.

Support & resistance proximity

The system also detects support and resistance zones by clustering nearby swing lows (support) and swing highs (resistance) from the past 12 months. Levels that have been tested multiple times are stronger. Each zone shows its price level and touch count (e.g., “$147.50 · 3x”).

When a stock's current price is within 3% of a zone, the signal score is adjusted:

• Near strong support (3+ touches): CSP gets +3 pts toward green. Buyers have historically stepped in at this level, making a put assignment less likely.
• Near moderate support (2 touches): CSP gets +2 pts.
• Near strong resistance (3+ touches): CC gets +3 pts toward green. The stock has historically turned down at this level, making your covered call more likely to expire worthless.
• Near moderate resistance (2 touches): CC gets +2 pts.

Putting it all together

The ideal CSP entry is an uptrending stock pulling back to a well-tested support level with RSI in the oversold zone. The ideal CC entry is a sideways or uptrending stock rallying into known resistance with RSI in the overbought zone. The reason tags below each signal show you exactly which factors are firing — including trend and S/R readings.

Confidence levels

Each signal also has a confidence level:

Reason tags

Below each signal, you'll see colored tags explaining why the signal is what it is — for example, “RSI 34 — oversold” or “-2.1% below 20d SMA”. These aren't just labels; they're the actual technical readings. You can use them to make your own judgment.

Strike recommendations

When a signal is green or yellow, three strike recommendations appear below, one for each risk level:

Each recommendation shows the specific strike price, expiration date, estimated premium, capital required, and the annualized return on that capital. You can take these numbers directly to your broker.

Each stock detail view includes an interactive price chart with technical overlays. Here's how to use it:

Time ranges

Click the range buttons at the top of the chart: 1D (intraday), 5D, 1M, 6M, or 1Y. For wheel trading, 1M and 6M are usually most useful — they show the trend you're trading into.

Chart types

Toggle between Line (simple price line with filled area) and Candles (OHLC candlesticks showing open, high, low, close). Candles give you more information but take practice to read.

Technical overlays

Use the toggle buttons to show or hide overlays:

• SMA — 50-day (blue) and 200-day (pink) simple moving averages. When price is above both, the trend is bullish. When price crosses below the 200-day, that's a warning sign.
• BB — Bollinger Bands (yellow dashed lines). When price touches the lower band, the stock may be oversold — a good time for a CSP. Touching the upper band suggests overbought — a good time for a CC.
• RSI — Relative Strength Index shown in a separate panel below the chart. Below 30 (green zone) = oversold. Above 70 (red zone) = overbought. These are the same readings that drive the entry signals.
• S/R — Support and Resistance levels shown as horizontal dashed lines. Green lines are support zones (where buyers historically step in) and red lines are resistance zones (where sellers historically appear). Each level is labeled with its price and touch count (e.g., “S $147.50 (3x)”). These levels come from swing point analysis of the past 12 months of price data. Toggle this overlay on/off with the S/R button.

At the bottom of the stock detail view, you'll find the live options chain — the actual put and call contracts you can trade.

Reading the chain

Contracts are organized by expiration date (shown as tabs like “10 Mar (14d)”). For each expiration, you'll see two tables:

• Cash-Secured Puts — the contracts you'd sell if opening a new CSP position. Look at strikes below the current price.
• Covered Calls — the contracts you'd sell if you already own the stock. Look at strikes above the current price.

Key columns

Watchlists let you save and organize the stocks you're interested in. You can create multiple lists (up to 10) with up to 100 stocks each.

Creating a watchlist

1. Click the gear icon next to the watchlist dropdown at the top of the screener.
2. In the “Manage Watchlists” modal, type a name for your new list and click Create.
3. You'll see your new list appear. You can now add stocks to it.

Adding stocks to a watchlist

There are two ways:

• From the screener table: Click the star icon on any stock row. If you have multiple watchlists, a popover appears letting you check/uncheck which lists to add it to. If you only have one list, it toggles automatically.
• From the manage modal: Open the gear icon, click a list to expand it, then type a ticker in the “Add ticker” input and press Enter. The symbol is validated before being added (fake tickers are rejected).

Viewing a watchlist

Use the dropdown at the top of the screener (next to the gear icon) to switch between “All Stocks” and any of your watchlists. When viewing a watchlist, the table shows only stocks in that list — and they're fetched independently, so you'll see all your watchlist stocks even if they aren't in the main screener universe.

Filter memory

Each watchlist remembers its own filter settings. So if you set “Min Score: 70+” on your “Blue Chips” list and “Sector: Tech” on your “Tech Picks” list, those filters are restored automatically when you switch between lists. “All Stocks” has its own saved filters too.

Removing stocks

Click the star icon again to remove a stock, or open the manage modal, expand the list, and click the × next to any ticker pill.

The Trade Journal lets you track every wheel trade you make — CSPs, covered calls, and share positions. It calculates your P/L using delayed price data and gives you a clear picture of your performance.

Adding a trade

Click + New Trade and fill in the details. The form adapts based on the trade type:

• CSP / CC — Symbol, strike price, premium (per-share), contracts, open fees, expiration date. When closing with BTC, you can also enter the close price and close fees.
• CC additionally shows a Cover with shares dropdown to link to an existing open SHARES position. Linking sets the shares to “Covered” status automatically.
• Shares — Symbol, buy price, sell price (if sold), number of shares.

Importing from your broker

Click Paste Trade to import trades from thinkorswim or Schwab. Copy one or more trade confirmation lines from your broker, paste them into the text box, and OptyTrades will parse the details automatically.

• Single line — pre-fills the Add Trade form so you can review before saving.
• Multiple lines — batch-imports all trades directly.
• TO CLOSE lines — automatically matches an open trade by symbol/type/strike and records a BTC or partial close.

Account bar

Above the summary cards you'll see the Account Bar. Click Set Account Size to enter your starting balance (e.g. $100,000). It displays:

• Starting Balance — the amount you entered. Click Edit to change it anytime.
• Current Balance — starting balance + Total P/L. Green if you're up, red if down.
• Account Return % — with period buttons (MTD, QTD, YTD, All) so you can see performance over different time periods.
• Capital Deployed — a progress bar showing what percentage of your account is committed to open positions. Green ≤ 50%, yellow 51–75%, red > 75%.

Understanding the summary cards

Below the account bar, seven summary cards show your key metrics:

• Total P/L — sum of all closed trade P/L plus open options (CSP/CC) P/L, since option premium is collected when you open the position. Does not include unrealized share gains.
• Win Rate — percentage of closed trades where P/L was positive.
• Open Trades / Closed Trades — how many positions are active vs. completed.
• Wins / Losses — count of closed trades with positive vs. negative P/L.
• Premium Collected — net P/L across all CSP and CC trades (open and closed), after fees and close costs.
• Unrealized P/L — profit/loss on open stock (SHARES) positions only, based on the last closing price. Hover the ⓘ icon for details. When you close a position, this amount is realized and added to your Total P/L.

Table columns

Each trade row shows:

• Symbol — clickable link to the stock's analysis page. Open trades also show a position-sizing traffic-light dot (see Section 11), and CSPs with multiple open positions show scale-in level dots.
• Type — CSP, CC, or SHARES.
• Strike / Buy — strike price for options, buy price for shares.
• Net Premium — for options only. Shows premium collected minus any close cost and fees. Hover to see the full breakdown (e.g. “$850.00 − $170.00 − $0.65”).
• P/L — realized P/L for closed trades; unrealized P/L for open SHARES (based on last close). Options P/L always shows the realized net premium.
• ROR / Ann. ROR — rate of return and annualized rate of return for options trades. Calculated as P/L divided by capital at risk (strike × 100  × contracts for CSPs).
• Status — see status table below.
• Actions — edit and delete buttons. You'll be asked to confirm before deleting.

Filtering trades

Use the filter chips to show specific subsets: Open (includes covered), Closed, CSP, CC, Shares, or All.

Trade statuses

P/L calculations

• Options (CSP/CC) — P/L = (premium × 100 × contracts) − (close cost × 100 × contracts) − open fees − close fees. Open options show P/L as premium collected minus open fees.
• Shares — Realized P/L = (sell price − buy price) × shares − fees. Unrealized P/L = (last closing price − buy price) × shares − fees.

Scale-in levels

When you have multiple open CSPs on the same ticker, colored dots appear next to the symbol showing your scale-in level (e.g. 2/3). This helps you track how many layers deep you are on a position.

Good position sizing is the difference between surviving a bad stock and blowing up your account. OptyTrades includes a built-in traffic light system that warns you when a single position — or your entire portfolio — is getting too concentrated.

How it works

Once you set your account size in the Trade Journal, every open trade gets a colored dot next to the symbol showing how much of your account that position uses. The dots reflect the combined capital on each ticker, not just one trade.

Per-trade traffic light

How capital is calculated per trade type:

• CSP: strike × 100 × contracts (cash you need to secure the put)
• CC: cost basis × 100 × contracts (value of shares you hold)
• Shares: buy price × number of shares

Portfolio allocation bar

Below the account bar, a progress bar shows how much of your total account is deployed across all open positions:

Scale-in tracking

When a quality stock drops, selling another CSP at a lower strike can improve your cost basis — this is called scaling in. OptyTrades automatically detects when you have multiple open CSPs on the same ticker and shows scale-in level dots next to the symbol.

Maximum 4 levels. Beyond that, the stock may have fundamental problems. The traffic light dot will also shift from green to yellow to red as you scale in, keeping you honest about your total exposure.

Position sizing in the Calculator

If you're logged in and have set your account size, the Options Calculator shows a position sizing card below the verdict. It tells you:

• How much capital this trade would use and what % of your account that is
• Whether you already have positions on that ticker — and the combined total
• Your remaining buying power after the trade
• The scale-in level if you already have CSPs on that ticker

The Options Calculator lets you quickly check if an option premium is worth selling before you enter the trade. No login required.

Step 1 — Look up the stock

Type a ticker symbol into the Symbol field and press Enter or click Look Up. The calculator fetches the current price, daily change, and company name so you can see exactly where the stock is trading before choosing a strike.

Step 2 — Choose CSP or CC

Select Cash-Secured Put (CSP) or Covered Call (CC) from the Type dropdown. The form adjusts automatically — CC mode shows an extra 'Share Cost Basis' field.

Evaluating a Cash-Secured Put (CSP)

You're considering selling a put — you want to know if the premium justifies tying up the capital.

What to look for: The annualized ROR should be ≥ 20% (green verdict) for the premium to be worth the risk. If it's under 10% (red), the premium is too thin — you're tying up capital for very little return.

Evaluating a Covered Call (CC)

You already own 100+ shares and want to sell calls against them. The calculator tells you if the premium is worth capping your upside.

What to look for: Same thresholds apply — green (≥ 20% annualized) is strong, amber (10–20%) is acceptable, red (< 10%) means the premium may not justify capping your upside. Also consider: if the stock is called away at your strike, would you be satisfied with that sale price?

Reading the results

• Rate of Return (ROR) — your net premium divided by capital at risk, as a percentage.
• Annualized ROR — the ROR scaled to a full year. This is the key number for comparing trades with different expirations.
• Net Premium — total credit received minus fees.
• Capital at Risk — how much cash or stock value is committed.
• Days to Expiry — calendar days between open and expiration.
• Premium per Day — net premium divided by days. Useful for comparing short-dated vs. long-dated options.

When you click a stock symbol in the Trade Journal, you'll go to the Ticker Analysis page. This gives you a focused view of all your trades on a single stock.

• Summary cards — your P/L breakdown for this stock: open positions, closed positions, net premiums collected, and combined total.
• YTD comparison — see how your return on this stock compares to the stock's own YTD performance, SPY, and QQQ. This tells you if the wheel strategy is outperforming just holding the stock.
• Filtered trade history — all your CSP, CC, and share trades on this stock, with tabs to filter by type and status.

OptyTrades offers a generous free tier so you can explore the screener before committing. Here's what's included in each plan:

Pro includes a 30-day free trial — no credit card required. Click “Sign Up Free” in the top-right corner of any page to get started.