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Cash-Secured Put Calculator

Live option-chain quotes. Annualized yield, breakeven, effective cost basis, and downside buffer for 234+ of the most-traded tickers — instantly.

Pick a ticker to begin

1

Each contract secures 100 shares (so 100 shares of collateral).

$

Auto-fills to the chain mid. Override with your actual fill price for accurate results.

Fill in the form to see your projected cash-secured-put income.

What if you tracked every put automatically?

This calculator answers the “what if” question on a single put. CoverEdge answers it across your whole book — every put, every roll, every assignment, and the covered calls you sell after — without a spreadsheet.

Auto-sync from 80+ brokers

SnapTrade pulls every put fill, expiration, and assignment into CoverEdge automatically. No CSV uploads.

Wheel-aware tracking

When a put is assigned, CoverEdge tracks the resulting shares and the covered calls you write against them — the full wheel, one ledger.

Ledger-grade P&L

Every premium, close, and assignment hits an immutable ledger. Reconciliation is built in. Tax season becomes a 5-minute export.

How to use a cash-secured put calculator

A cash-secured put is one of the simplest options-income trades: you sell a put option on a stock you'd be happy to own, and you set aside enough cash to buy 100 shares per contract at the strike if you're assigned. The buyer pays you a premium for the right to sell you the shares at the strike by expiration. If the stock stays above the strike, the put expires worthless and you keep the premium — that's the “return if expired” the calculator shows. If it finishes below, you buy the shares at an effective price of strike minus premium.

What the headline numbers mean

  • Premium received — the total cash credited when you open the trade (premium per share × contracts × 100).
  • Cash secured — the collateral you must reserve (strike × contracts × 100). This is the denominator for the yield calculation.
  • Effective cost basis / breakeven — strike minus the premium per share. If assigned, this is what you effectively pay for the stock.
  • Downside buffer — how far the stock can fall before your strike is reached, as a percentage of the current price.
  • Annualized return — the premium-to-collateral yield extrapolated to a full year so you can compare different expirations on the same scale.

Cash-secured puts and the wheel strategy

Cash-secured puts are the entry leg of the wheel strategy: you sell puts to get paid while you wait to buy a stock at your price, and if you're assigned, you switch to selling covered calls against the shares. For ticker shortlists, see our guides on the best stocks for cash-secured puts and best stocks for the wheel strategy.

What this calculator doesn't do

This is a single-trade projection tool. It assumes you hold the put until expiration and either keep the premium or get assigned. Real-world income tracking has to account for rolls, early assignment, the covered calls you sell after assignment, wash-sale rules, and tax-lot accounting. That's where CoverEdge comes in — every one of those events lands in an immutable ledger and feeds the dashboard automatically. Start a free 14-day trial below (no card) when you're ready for the real thing.

Frequently asked questions

How does this cash-secured put calculator work?

Pick a ticker, set how many puts you want to sell, choose an expiration and strike, and the calculator pulls live option-chain quotes to compute your premium received, cash collateral required, effective cost basis, breakeven, downside buffer, and annualized yield. Everything updates instantly — no signup required.

How much cash do I need for a cash-secured put?

Strike price × 100 per contract. A $30 strike reserves $3,000; a $200 strike reserves $20,000. That cash is held as collateral so you can buy the shares at the strike if you're assigned — which is what makes the put 'cash-secured' rather than 'naked'. The calculator's 'Cash secured' figure shows this for your chosen strike and contract count.

What is the breakeven on a cash-secured put?

Your breakeven (and effective cost basis if assigned) is the strike price minus the premium per share you collected. As long as the stock stays above the strike at expiration, the put expires worthless and you keep the full premium; if it's below, you buy the shares at an effective price of strike − premium.

What's the annualized return on a cash-secured put?

Annualized return is the yield you'd earn if you could repeat the same put sale every period for a full year, computed as (premium ÷ cash collateral) × (365 ÷ days to expiration). It lets you compare a 7-day weekly against a 45-day monthly on an apples-to-apples basis. The calculator computes the yield against the strike (the cash actually secured), which is the correct denominator for a cash-secured put.

What happens if my cash-secured put is assigned?

If the stock closes below your strike at expiration, you buy 100 shares per contract at the strike price using your reserved cash. Your effective cost basis is the strike minus the premium you collected. Many wheel-strategy traders then sell covered calls against those shares to keep generating income.

Why are some tickers missing from the list?

The free calculator runs on a curated allowlist of the most actively-traded US stocks and ETFs (currently 200+ tickers). To analyze any optionable symbol, start your free 14-day Pro trial — no credit card required.

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