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Cash-Secured Put / The Wheel

BEGINNER income Uncapped risk

Get paid to wait to buy a stock you like.

When to use it

Bullish-to-neutral on a quality ticker, elevated IV rank. Sell a 30–45 DTE put around 0.30 delta; exit at ~50% max profit. If assigned, you own the shares and sell covered calls (the Wheel).

Max profit

The premium collected.

Max loss

Strike − premium, if the stock goes to zero (you own it).

Payoff at expiry
illustrative shape — not to scale
profit zone loss zone X axis = stock price at expiry →
How it's built

Strikes shown low→high. Sell = collect premium · Buy = pay premium for protection or upside.

Hermes-evaluated setups

High-conviction per-ticker applications — setups with a confidence-adjusted win rate ≥ 80% over ≥20 backtested trades (95% lower bound — honest for the sample size, never a raw 100%). Avg P/L is the mean profit/loss per one-contract position.

Ticker Win Rate Avg P/L Sharpe Trades DTE
GLD 90% +$382 4.9 34 53
HD 90% +$606 3.0 34 52
QQQ 89% +$390 5.8 32 56
AAPL 88% +$64 2.3 59 30
XOM 88% +$94 3.6 57 21
P 88% +$48 2.5 57 21
PLD 87% +$23 0.7 84 14
AMD 87% +$149 0.9 83 21
AVGO 86% +$208 2.2 59 30
KMI 86% +$21 3.2 57 21
WMB 86% +$35 3.0 57 21
VST 86% +$174 1.9 57 21
MMM 86% +$121 2.3 57 21
QCOM 86% +$189 2.1 57 21
PSX 85% +$94 1.8 84 14
MPC 85% +$35 1.6 84 14
SMH 85% +$182 1.6 84 14
SPG 85% +$43 1.1 84 14
COST 85% +$309 4.2 33 14
MRK 84% +$79 3.4 41 30
OXY 84% +$66 2.9 41 30
FFIV 84% +$255 2.9 41 30
ABBV 84% +$201 2.2 41 30
GD 84% +$85 1.8 41 30
RTX 84% +$35 2.2 41 30
SOFI 84% +$36 1.7 41 30
V 84% +$185 1.3 41 30
AFRM 84% +$47 1.1 41 30
NVDA 84% +$83 2.6 59 30
USD 84% +$51 1.9 59 30
NBIS 84% +$234 4.5 31 12
TSM 84% +$233 2.2 84 14
NUE 84% +$49 1.2 84 14
SNOW 84% +$204 0.9 84 14
LMT 84% +$186 1.5 84 14
TSLA 84% +$301 0.9 83 21
CEVA 83% +$56 2.5 57 21
GILD 83% +$69 3.0 57 21
CVLT 83% +$78 2.6 57 21
COP 83% +$95 1.9 57 21
GLW 83% +$23 1.6 57 21
SSRM 83% +$31 1.9 57 21
LULU 83% +$117 1.7 57 21
PL 83% +$21 1.5 57 21
ETN 83% +$260 2.5 57 21
COHR 83% +$115 1.5 57 21
SE 83% +$66 0.8 57 21
CRWD 83% +$125 1.0 80 21
ARM 82% +$236 2.5 46 14
HPQ 82% +$6 1.3 84 14

Backtested results are not a guarantee of future performance.