Wheel Strategy

The wheel is an income strategy built from two simpler ones you may already know: the cash-secured put and the covered call. You sell options on a stock you would be happy to own, collect premium either way, and let the stock be assigned to you or called away as the cycle turns. It is popular because every step is a plain trade and the rules fit on an index card. It is also easy to run badly, usually by wheeling a stock you did not actually want to hold. ...

I have been looking at ThetaGang, an open-source trading bot designed for options traders who want to automate parts of the wheel strategy and other premium-selling workflows. The project describes itself as a configurable bot that started with a basic wheel implementation and has expanded into broader portfolio automation, including cash management, share rebalancing, VIX call hedging, exchange-hours controls, and position-management rules. This is not a “set it and forget it” money machine. It is a tool for turning a written trading plan into repeatable actions. That distinction matters because short-options strategies can still lose money quickly in volatile or strongly trending markets. ...

The wheel is simple to describe and surprisingly easy to lose track of: a few weeks of puts, an assignment, a few months of calls, a call-away, and then it starts over. After two or three turns most people cannot say what their real cost basis is. This tracker keeps a running ledger and does that arithmetic for you. Click Load example to see a finished wheel and a wheel in progress, then clear it and log your own trades. Your entries are stored in this browser only; nothing is uploaded, and you can export them as a CSV at any time. ...