Risk disclosure

Draft Last updated October 29, 2026. Beta draft, not yet reviewed by a lawyer. It will be before anyone pays.

Options involve risk and are not right for everyone. Before you trade, read the OCC's Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options.

Selling cash-secured puts

• If the stock closes below your strike at expiry, you'll usually be assigned: you buy 100 shares per contract at the strike, even if the stock is far lower.
• Losses can be much larger than the premium. A $74 strike can mean buying $7,400 of stock that's worth $5,000 the same day. The premium you collected only covers a small part of a big drop.
• Assignment can happen early, before expiry.
• Gaps on news or earnings can skip right past your strike.
• Holding assigned shares keeps the full downside of the stock until you sell them.

About our picks

• The rules are mechanical and can be wrong. A stock that passes every rule can still fall sharply.
• Bids move. Your fill can differ from the bid we show by a few cents or more.
• Past results, including the public track record, don't predict future results.
• Results on this site are measured as a percent of cash secured and don't include commissions, fees or taxes.

Paper vs real money

Paper mode grades picks as if you took them at the bid, with no money at risk. Real trading adds slippage, fees, taxes and the urge to deviate. We suggest a few weeks of paper first, and never trading money you can't afford to lose.

No advice

Everything here is education and research. It isn't investment, tax or legal advice for you. Talk to a licensed professional about your own situation.