Most option traders focus exclusively on collecting premium from covered calls and cash-secured puts. While premium income forms the foundation of systematic option selling strategies, Bitcoin ETF BITO offers a second powerful income stream that many traders overlook: substantial monthly dividends that can add hundreds or even thousands of dollars to your account depending on your position size.
When you combine consistent option premium collection with BITO's monthly dividend payments, you create a dual-income approach that accelerates cost basis reduction, provides cashflow even during sideways markets, and builds wealth through both capital appreciation potential and systematic income generation.
This article demonstrates a complete workflow for managing BITO positions using both covered calls and cash-secured puts while tracking the dividend income that paper trading accounts cannot reflect. You will learn how to record assignments, calculate true cost basis including all premium collected, and make strategic decisions about strike price selection based on current price trends and your cost basis with premium.
BITO generates income through two distinct mechanisms that work together to produce consistent cashflow regardless of market direction. The first income source comes from selling options premium through covered calls on owned shares and cash-secured puts that can lead to stock assignments. The second income source comes from BITO's monthly dividend payments that can reach $1.45 or more per share during periods of high Bitcoin volatility and strong ETF performance.
While paper trading accounts do not reflect dividend income, real money accounts receive substantial monthly payments that dramatically impact your overall returns. A position of 900 shares receiving a $1.45 monthly dividend generates $1,305 in income that month. Over time, these dividend payments add up to thousands of dollars that reduce your effective cost basis and provide cashflow even when you cannot sell options at attractive premiums.
The dividend income is particularly valuable during periods when the stock price trades significantly below your cost basis. During these periods, covered call premiums may be minimal because strikes near or above your cost basis offer little premium. However, the dividend continues to pay monthly, providing consistent income that reduces your cost basis and improves your overall position profitability.
Cash-secured puts that expire in the money result in stock assignments where you acquire 100 shares per contract at the strike price. Each assignment represents an opportunity to purchase shares at a predetermined price point where you believed the premium made the trade attractive. As assignments accumulate over time, you build a larger position through systematic dollar cost averaging.
In the example from the video, ten separate cash-secured put assignments built a 1,000 share BITO position. Each assignment occurred at progressively lower strike prices, which continually reduced the average cost per share. This dollar cost averaging approach means that even though early assignments may show unrealized losses, the overall position benefits from the lower average cost basis created by subsequent assignments at better prices.
The video demonstrates a complete weekly workflow starting with reviewing executed transactions in Think or Swim, transferring that data to MyATMM for proper cost basis tracking, and then planning the next week's option positions. This systematic approach ensures accurate record keeping and informed decision making.
The week begins by checking which options expired or executed from the previous week. In this example, the trader reviews two transactions: a covered call that expired worthless because the stock stayed below the strike, and a cash-secured put that expired in the money resulting in assignment of 100 shares at the $20 strike.
One interesting observation from the video involves pricing discrepancies between Friday close and Monday execution. The trader placed a cash-secured put order expecting to collect $39 (39 cents per share) but actually received $375 when the order filled Monday morning. This dramatic difference illustrates how option prices can change significantly over weekends based on market conditions and volatility changes.
After identifying the executed transactions, the workflow moves to recording them in MyATMM's cost basis tracking system. This involves several specific steps:
This systematic recording process creates a complete transaction history that tracks every premium collected, every commission paid, every assignment received, and calculates the precise cost basis with premium for accurate decision making.
After recording all transactions, the position summary reveals critical metrics for planning future trades. The example position owns 1,000 shares with these key numbers:
| Metric | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Total Shares | 1,000 | Built through 10 cash-secured put assignments |
| Total Cost | $25,000 | Total capital invested through all assignments |
| Current Value | $19,800 | Stock trading at $19.80 per share |
| Unrealized Loss | $5,200 | Paper loss before accounting for premium and dividends |
| Premium Collected | $2,844 | Total option premium across all transactions |
| Cost Basis | $25.00 | Average cost per share from assignments |
| Cost Basis with Premium | $22.16 | Effective cost after subtracting all premium collected |
The video emphasizes that paper trading accounts cannot reflect dividend income, but this represents a substantial missing component in the real profitability calculation. The trader checks Yahoo Finance historical data showing BITO paid $1.45 per share dividend in August 2024. With 900 shares owned as of the August 1st ex-dividend date, this generated $1,305 in dividend income.
Adding this dividend to the premium collected shows total income of $4,149 ($2,844 premium + $1,305 dividend). This additional income would reduce the unrealized loss from $5,200 to just over $1,000, moving the position much closer to breakeven. Over time, continued dividend payments combined with ongoing premium collection will likely bring the position to profitability even if the stock price remains depressed.
An interesting discrepancy appears in the video where MyATMM shows cost basis of $25.00 while Think or Swim shows $27.00. The trader notes that Think or Swim can only track transactions executed within the platform, while MyATMM captures all income sources including potential transactions from other accounts or historical positions. This illustrates why dedicated tracking systems provide more accurate cost basis calculations than broker platforms.
With accurate cost basis data available, the workflow proceeds to planning the next week's trades. This involves analyzing the stock's price trend, evaluating available premiums at different strike prices, and making strategic decisions about risk versus reward.
Before selecting strikes, the trader examines BITO's recent price chart noting that the stock appears to be entering an uptrend. This observation has critical implications for strike selection because selling covered calls below your cost basis becomes riskier when the stock shows upward momentum. If the stock continues rising and reaches your strike, you may be assigned at a price below your cost basis, locking in a loss that consumes some of your collected premium.
The uptrend observation suggests waiting might produce better covered call opportunities. As the stock price rises toward your cost basis strikes, the premium for those strikes increases substantially because they move from out of the money to at the money. Selling when the stock approaches your target strike can multiply your premium several times compared to selling when the stock sits far below the strike.
The trader uses MyATMM's filtering to isolate the $25 strike (matching the cost basis) and examines available premiums across different expirations:
The trader then explores strikes below the cost basis to see if selling closer to the current price might generate meaningfully more premium. With the stock at $19.80 and weekly average trading range of $1.14, strikes in the $21-23 range could potentially be reached in a week if the stock continues its uptrend:
Given the uptrend and the educational demonstration purpose of the video, the trader makes the conservative decision to sell covered calls at the $25 strike (exactly at cost basis) going 2 weeks out for 4 cents per share. This choice prioritizes capital preservation over maximum premium collection.
The reasoning is straightforward: selling 10 contracts for 4 cents generates $400 in premium over two weeks with zero risk of realizing a loss through assignment. While selling closer to the money could generate more premium in the short term, it requires daily monitoring and potential buybacks if the stock moves quickly, which may not be practical for all traders.
After selecting the covered call strike, the trader evaluates cash-secured put opportunities to continue building the BITO position. The approach examines strikes near the current $19.80 price point to find attractive premium for the appropriate expiration.
The at-the-money $19.50 strike shows available premiums across different expirations:
The analysis reveals that going an additional week only produces 9 cents more premium, which is not compelling enough to lock up capital for the extra time. The trader selects the 1-week expiration collecting 51 cents (the mark price) for selling the $19.50 cash-secured put.
The final position has an interesting structure: covered calls 2 weeks out at $25 strike collecting 4 cents, and cash-secured puts 1 week out at $19.50 strike collecting 51 cents. This asymmetric structure reflects different priorities for each side of the position.
The covered call goes 2 weeks out because going only 1 week at the safe $25 strike would collect just 1 cent, while 2 weeks collects 4 cents for only modest additional time. The cash-secured put stays at 1 week because the premium is already attractive and there is no significant benefit to extending the duration. This flexibility to use different timeframes for calls versus puts optimizes premium collection while maintaining appropriate risk levels for each component.
Throughout the strike selection process, the trader references MyATMM's weekly average trading range indicator showing $1.14 for BITO. This metric represents how much the stock typically moves in a week, providing context for evaluating strike probabilities.
With the stock at $19.80 and weekly ATR of $1.14, a one standard deviation move would bring the stock to approximately $20.94 on the high end or $18.66 on the low end. This statistical framework helps assess risk:
The weekly ATR provides objective data to supplement subjective chart reading, creating a more complete risk assessment for every strike price under consideration.
The final step in the weekly workflow involves reconciling the total account value between Think or Swim and MyATMM to verify that all transactions have been recorded accurately. The video shows the trader checking the account statement in Think or Swim showing total value of $76,878, then navigating to MyATMM's dashboard and confirming the same total of $76,878.
This reconciliation step catches any missing transactions or data entry errors before they compound over time. In fact, the video demonstrates discovering a forgotten transaction: after initially reconciling, the trader realizes the stock assignment was processed in MyATMM but the transaction record was never saved to permanent history. Clicking save on that transaction corrects the oversight and maintains accurate tracking going forward.
Beyond total account value reconciliation, the dashboard provides monthly premium tracking showing $395 collected in August so far. The trader notes this represents roughly $300-$400 per month in recent months, compared to much higher amounts of several thousand dollars in earlier months when volatility was higher and premiums were more attractive.
This monthly tracking provides valuable context for setting income expectations and evaluating whether the strategy remains effective under current market conditions. While premium income has declined as volatility decreased, the position continues generating consistent cashflow that adds up over time alongside the dividend payments that the paper account cannot reflect.
Managing BITO positions effectively requires combining option premium collection with awareness of the substantial dividend income that real money accounts receive monthly. The systematic workflow demonstrated in the video creates a repeatable process for building positions through cash-secured put assignments, generating covered call income on owned shares, and tracking all transactions accurately to calculate true cost basis with premium.
The video explicitly addresses selling covered calls below cost basis, noting this approach works only when you can monitor the position daily and buy back quickly if needed. For most traders, selling at or above cost basis provides stress-free income without assignment risk. However, if the stock shows upward momentum, patience often rewards you with better premiums as the stock rises toward your target strikes.
Building a 1,000 share position through ten separate cash-secured put assignments at progressively lower prices demonstrates how dollar cost averaging reduces your average cost per share. While early assignments may show unrealized losses, the strategy succeeds when subsequent assignments occur at lower prices that bring down the overall average. Combined with ongoing premium and dividend collection, this approach transforms short-term drawdowns into long-term position building.
Options trading involves significant risk and is not suitable for all investors. Selling cash-secured puts obligates you to purchase shares at the strike price if assigned, which can result in losses if the stock declines significantly. Covered calls cap upside potential and do not protect against downside risk beyond the premium received.
BITO is subject to the risks associated with Bitcoin futures, including high volatility, liquidity risk, and tracking error. Dividend payments can fluctuate significantly based on Bitcoin futures market conditions and are not guaranteed. Past premium collection and dividend payments do not guarantee future income.
This content is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice or a recommendation to trade any specific security or implement any particular strategy.
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