As traders transition into a new year, it's the perfect time to reflect on past performance and plan for future positions. This comprehensive review walks through an entire year's worth of option premium collection, the decision to consolidate multiple brokerage accounts, and the systematic process of launching a new wheel strategy position with Marvell Technology (MRVL).
The year-end results tell a compelling story about the power of consistent option selling: approximately $5,200 in total premiums collected over just six months of active trading. While the portfolio experienced some realized losses that reduced the net premium from $7,000 in gross credits, the overall return demonstrates the viability of systematic covered call and cash-secured put strategies.
The month-by-month analysis reveals important patterns in option premium collection. The initial months showed modest returns as positions were being established and strategies refined. However, by the fall months, premium collection reached a steady rhythm of approximately $1,500 per month.
December presented unique challenges as weekly option premiums became less attractive. The solution involved a strategic pivot to longer-term positions extending several months into the future. This adjustment brought in substantial upfront premium that made up for the lower weekly yields. This flexibility demonstrates a key advantage of option selling: the ability to adapt time horizons based on market conditions and premium availability.
Managing multiple brokerage accounts can create unnecessary complexity in tracking cost basis and overall portfolio performance. The decision to consolidate positions from Robinhood into TD Ameritrade, and eventually into TastyWorks, reflects several important considerations:
While TD Ameritrade's ThinkOrSwim platform offers powerful analytical tools and detailed filtering capabilities, TastyWorks provides more intuitive position grouping and trade visualization specifically designed for option sellers. The choice often comes down to personal workflow preferences and which features matter most for your specific trading style.
The decision to demonstrate new positions in a paper trading account rather than the live portfolio serves multiple important purposes:
Paper trading accounts through TD Ameritrade provide realistic order fills and tracking, making them ideal for learning position management before committing actual funds. The $100,000 virtual balance allows for demonstrating strategies at various scale levels while keeping individual position sizes realistic for typical retail traders.
Selecting the right underlying stock for a wheel strategy position requires careful analysis of multiple factors. The MyATMM covered call and cash-secured put analysis screen provides powerful filtering capabilities to narrow down the universe of potential candidates.
Dividend-paying stocks offer specific advantages for option selling strategies that extend beyond just collecting quarterly payments:
While this remains opinion rather than proven fact, the theory holds that dividend-paying stocks maintain value better during downtrends because falling prices create attractive entry points for income-focused investors seeking higher yields.
Starting with over 535 tracked stocks, the filtering process systematically narrows the field to identify optimal candidates for the wheel strategy:
The analysis screen displays critical data for both put and call sides across different time horizons:
After applying all screening filters, Marvell Technology emerged as the top candidate based on annualized ROI for cash-secured puts. The analysis reveals several attractive characteristics:
Before entering any position, analyzing the stock's chart pattern and fundamental indicators helps set realistic expectations:
The one-year daily chart revealed MRVL in a clear downtrend with a low of $35. While downtrends might concern stock buyers, option sellers can actually benefit from this pattern by collecting premium as the stock potentially finds support levels. The key is having sufficient capital reserved to dollar cost average if assignment occurs.
MRVL's dividend payment schedule showed an ex-dividend date of January 5th, occurring during the same week as the potential cash-secured put position. Understanding ex-dividend dates matters more for covered call positions where early assignment could cause you to miss the dividend payment.
For cash-secured puts, the ex-dividend date has minimal impact since you don't yet own shares. If assignment occurs after the ex-date, you'll purchase shares at the strike price but won't receive that quarter's dividend. This is an acceptable trade-off when the option premium justifies the position.
With MRVL identified as the optimal candidate, the next step involves analyzing specific strike prices and expirations to determine the best entry point.
The ThinkOrSwim platform's filtering tools provide exceptional clarity when comparing premiums across different expirations:
Given that the market was closed for New Year's observation, the order was placed to execute when trading resumed. The strike price filter in ThinkOrSwim allows viewing all expirations for a specific strike simultaneously, making it easy to identify the most attractive risk-reward combinations.
The actual order placement requires attention to several important details:
The default contract quantity in paper trading accounts is often set to 10 contracts, which would represent a $37,000 commitment. For realistic demonstration purposes, the order was adjusted to a single contract, which is more appropriate for typical retail account sizes and allows capital preservation for rolling positions or dollar cost averaging if needed.
Once the order is placed, the next critical step is preparing the cost basis tracking system to accurately record the position once it executes. MyATMM's demo account provides the perfect environment for learning the tracking process.
The demo account already contained several tickers for testing and demonstration purposes. Adding MRVL requires just a few clicks:
The initial attempt to add MRVL to the cost basis tracking page revealed a limitation: the demo account was configured to allow only three tickers. This restriction exists to demonstrate the free account tier limitations while encouraging users to experience the full platform capabilities.
After quick backend adjustments to increase the demo account limits, the process continued smoothly. In a live account, users can track up to three tickers free forever, or upgrade to monthly, quarterly, or annual memberships for unlimited ticker tracking.
When the cash-secured put order fills, the transaction will be recorded in MyATMM with the following details:
This creates the foundation for tracking the complete wheel strategy cycle as the position evolves through potential assignment, covered call selling, and continued premium collection.
One of ThinkOrSwim's most valuable features for option sellers is the ability to filter option chains by specific strike prices and view all expirations simultaneously. This feature deserves special attention because it dramatically improves decision-making efficiency.
Instead of scrolling through each expiration cycle individually and comparing premiums across multiple screens, the strike filter consolidates everything into a single view. For example, when looking for $0.50 strikes on a cash-secured put for CLOV (an example from the original portfolio), you can:
This revealed that for very low-priced stocks, premium can become virtually nonexistent for near-term expirations, forcing traders to extend time frames significantly or abandon the position entirely. This insight led to the decision to close small positions and focus capital on higher-premium opportunities like MRVL.
The MRVL position represents the beginning of a systematic demonstration of the complete wheel strategy cycle. The planned approach includes several key components:
By using the paper trading account for this demonstration, several advantages emerge:
Each step of the MRVL wheel strategy will be documented in MyATMM, demonstrating how the platform tracks:
This comprehensive review and new position setup illustrate several important principles for option sellers:
Managing positions across multiple brokerages creates significant tracking challenges that MyATMM specifically addresses:
Rather than trying to reconcile cost basis calculations across Robinhood, TD Ameritrade, and TastyWorks separately, MyATMM provides a single source of truth. Whether you execute trades at one brokerage or spread them across multiple platforms, the cost basis tracking remains consistent and accurate.
MyATMM doesn't care which brokerage holds your actual shares. The platform focuses exclusively on what matters: tracking every transaction that affects your cost basis and calculating your true position value including all premium collected over time.
Even when consolidating accounts or moving positions between brokerages, MyATMM maintains complete transaction history. The dashboard shows total premium collected, realized gains and losses, and current position values regardless of where shares physically reside.
When moving positions from Robinhood to TD Ameritrade as demonstrated in this review, MyATMM captures:
This prevents the gaps in tracking that occur when brokerages don't transfer full transaction history during account moves.
Options trading involves significant risk and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The strategies discussed in this article, including cash-secured puts and the wheel strategy, can result in losses including the entire premium collected and potential losses on assigned stock positions.
Paper trading results do not reflect actual trading performance and may not account for slippage, commissions, and market impact. This content is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Always consult with a qualified financial advisor and thoroughly understand the risks before implementing any options trading strategy.
Dividend-paying stocks are not guaranteed to maintain price levels, and option selling does not eliminate market risk. Assignment on short options can occur at any time, including before ex-dividend dates, and may result in unexpected tax consequences.
Stop losing track of your cost basis across multiple positions and brokerages. MyATMM provides the purpose-built solution for option sellers who demand accuracy.
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