Options table

How the table is laid out

Pick the stock in the quote header; the chain follows it. Each expiration is a bar you tap to open or close, and you can have several open at once. An expiration's header shows its date, its type in brackets ((W) weekly, (M) monthly and so on), the days left, such as 28d, and its implied volatility, such as IV 34%. At its right edge are the C and P badges, explained below.

Inside an expiration, each side mirrors the other outward from the Strike in the middle:

Strikes run from low at the top to high at the bottom. The strike nearest the stock's price is bold and outlined, with a small arrow pointing toward where the price sits. The Strike limit drop-down in the top bar sets how many strikes each expiration shows, centred on the price, from 5 up to ALL. On smaller screens some columns hide, and on a phone you scroll the table sideways.

Tap a Strike for a card with both the call and the put at that strike, including CAGR as a range from selling at the bid to selling at the ask, and the premium per share and per contract.

Earnings and dividend lines

A purple line across the table marks an upcoming earnings date, between the last expiration before it and the first one after. A thinner green line marks the next ex-dividend date, with the dividend per share, for example Ex-div Nov 14 · $0.52. Expirations below it are still open on that day, so their prices allow for the dividend.

CAGR: the return of selling

Wheel traders sell options, so the table puts a number on what selling each one would earn. CAGR is the yearly return of selling the option, on the strike's capital, compounded over the days left:

CAGR = (1 + premium ÷ strike) ^ (365 ÷ days to expiration) − 1

The premium is the option's extrinsic value at its mid price, halfway between bid and ask. For an out-of-the-money option that's the whole price. For an in-the-money option the intrinsic value is taken out, because a seller gives it back on assignment, so counting it would overstate the return.

Annualizing lets you compare expirations of different lengths on one scale: a small premium on a short expiration can show a higher CAGR than a bigger premium further out.

Tinted rows: strikes that meet your targets

Inside an open expiration, strikes that meet both of your targets are tinted: blue on the calls side, with a blue edge at the far left, and purple on the puts side, with a purple edge at the far right. A strike qualifies when:

• its CAGR is at least your Min put CAGR % (for a put) or Min call CAGR % (for a call), and
• its delta is no larger than your Max |Delta|. Delta roughly approximates the chance of finishing in the money, so this keeps strikes far enough out.

Only out-of-the-money strikes are considered: calls at or above the stock's price, puts at or below it. The further out of the money a highlighted strike is, the stronger its tint, so the most strongly tinted row is the furthest-out strike that still meets your targets.

The C and P badges

Each expiration header ends in a small box with two badges: C for calls, in blue, and P for puts, in purple.

• Lit (solid colour, white letter): the expiration has at least one tinted strike on that side.
• Dim: nothing on that side meets your targets.
• The bar under the letter compares this expiration's best opportunity with the best across all expirations. A full bar means this one is the best. "Best" is your Opportunity Bar Preference: Prefer Furthest OTM (the starting choice) or Prefer Highest CAGR.

The badges work on closed expirations too, so you can scan down the headers for where to look before opening one. Hover over them, or long-press on a phone, for each side's first qualifying strike, for example Put: 8.4% OTM, strike 125.00, CAGR 41.2%, |Δ| 0.19.

Setting your targets

The targets live in Settings → General → Options tab: Min put CAGR % and Min call CAGR % (starting at 40), Max |Delta| (starting at 0.20) and Opportunity Bar Preference. The tints and badges only reflect the targets you set; they don't say whether a trade is a good one.

Tranche lanes: your shares beside the strikes

Once you hold the stock, a narrow column of thin coloured lines appears between the calls and the Strike. Each line is a lane for one share tranche of at least 100 shares, from your connected Tastytrade account and your imports. Reading down a lane means moving to higher strikes.

Reading the regions

• Above the bar (below break-even): a call here locks in a loss on that tranche if assigned. Its ◆ gets a red outline.
• On the bar (break-even to cost): assignment is still a profit overall, thanks to the premium collected.
• Below the bar (at or above cost): the shares themselves are in profit if called away.

More to know

• Colours: each account has its own colour (blue, then green, amber, purple and teal), and each further tranche in an account is a lighter shade.
• Fully covered tranches, where every lot already carries a call, are faded and show no count.
• Your calls show in every expiration, at their strike, added up across expirations. The lanes describe your shares, which belong to every expiration; the call's own expiration is marked by the position badge at the far left of its row.
• At most 6 lanes are drawn. Fully covered tranches give up their places first.

Hover over the lanes, or tap them on a phone, for each tranche's details: account, shares and cost, break-even, Avail CC, calls open, and where the price stands against break-even.

Your open options at the edges

When you have open options at a strike in an expiration, a small badge shows the net contract count on that row: calls at the far left edge, puts at the far right. A minus means short, so -2 is two short contracts and +1 is one long. Your connected account and your imports count together.

SmartStrikes doesn't place trades yet. Tapping a bid, an ask or one of these badges shows a note that trading is planned for a future release.

Where the prices come from

With a connected Tastytrade account (Pro), bids and asks are real exchange prices, streamed live. On your own Alpaca key, option prices, and the CAGR, tinted rows and C and P badges worked out from them, are estimates from Alpaca's pricing model rather than market prices. See Lite and Pro.