# Options Income Strategies Compared: Calls, Puts & the Wheel Source: https://theoptionsbench.com/strategies/ > Plain-text mirror for AI/LLM ingestion. Canonical HTML page: https://theoptionsbench.com/strategies/ --- The complete map of the income strategies a retail options trader actually runs - what each pays, what it costs, what it risks, and when to use it. Every strategy below links straight to its calculator and a plain-English explainer, so you can go from "which one?" to running the numbers in two clicks. Prefer to be guided? Try the interactive Strategy Finder -> Answer four quick questions - experience, goal, assignment comfort and risk - and get matched to a strategy plus its calculator. Or compare them yourself below. ## Compare the core strategies | Strategy | Best for | Max profit | Max loss | Capital | | Covered call | Holders harvesting income | Strike - cost basis + premium | Full stock downside, less premium | 100 shares per contract | | Cash-secured put | Buyers paid to wait | Premium received | (Strike × 100) - premium if stock to zero | Strike × 100 per contract in cash | | The wheel | Continuous income on one ticker | Premiums across cycles + stock gains | Full stock downside while holding shares | Largest put strike × 100 in cash | | Credit spread (vertical) | Defined-risk premium selling | Net credit received | Strike width - credit | (Strike width × 100) - credit | | Debit spread (vertical) | Directional bets with capped risk | Strike width - debit | Debit paid | Debit × 100 per contract | ## Find your strategy by goal Start from what you are trying to do. | If you want to… | Use | Start | | Earn income on shares you already own | Covered call | Calculator · Learn | | Get paid to buy a stock at a lower price | Cash-secured put | Calculator · Learn | | Run continuous income on one stock you would own | The wheel | Calculator · Learn | | Bullish, defined-risk income on far less capital | Bull put spread | Calculator · Learn | | Covered-call income without owning 100 shares | Poor man's covered call | Calculator · Learn | | Income while a stock stays range-bound | Iron condor | Calculator · Learn | | Protect shares you hold from a fall | Protective put / collar | Calculator · Learn | ## Core income strategies The three trades this whole site is built around - start here. ### Covered call Sell one call against every 100 shares you own. Income that caps your upside at the strike; the downside is still the stock, cushioned only by the premium. Calculate: Covered Call Calculator · Learn: What Is a Covered Call? · Go deeper: Covered Call vs Cash-Secured Put ### Cash-secured put Sell a put backed by the cash to buy 100 shares at the strike. You are paid to wait, and assigned the shares if it falls below - so only sell it on stocks you would happily own. Calculate: Cash-Secured Put Calculator · Learn: What Is a Cash-Secured Put? · Go deeper: Best Stocks & ETFs for CSPs ### The wheel Cash-secured puts until assigned, then covered calls until called away, then repeat. Continuous income on one stock you are content to hold through a drawdown. Calculate: Wheel Strategy Calculator · Learn: The Wheel Strategy Explained · Go deeper: Wheel vs Buy & Hold ## Capital-efficient & defined-risk income Same income idea, far less capital - by capping the downside with a long option. ### Poor man's covered call Buy a deep-in-the-money LEAPS call as a stock substitute and sell shorter-dated calls against it - covered-call-style income on a fraction of the capital. Calculate: Poor Man's Covered Call Calculator · Learn: What Is a Poor Man's Covered Call? · Go deeper: Covered Call vs PMCC ### Bull put spread Sell a put and buy a lower-strike put for protection. A bullish, defined-risk credit trade: keep the credit above the short strike, with a capped loss below. Calculate: Bull Put Spread Calculator · Learn: What Is a Bull Put Spread? · Go deeper: Cash-Secured Put vs Bull Put Spread ### Call (vertical) spread Two calls at different strikes. Buy the lower for a bullish debit spread, or sell the lower for a bearish credit spread - both with a known maximum loss. Calculate: Call Spread Calculator · Learn: What Is a Call Spread? ## Range-bound & neutral (defined risk) For a stock you expect to go nowhere - sell premium on both sides with the risk capped. ### Iron condor Sell an out-of-the-money put spread and call spread at once. Profits if the stock stays between the short strikes; the wings cap the risk on both sides. Calculate: Iron Condor Calculator · Learn: What Is an Iron Condor? · Go deeper: Iron Condors vs Strangles ### Iron butterfly Sell a put and call at the same body strike for a large credit, with protective wings. A high-reward, lower-probability bet that the stock pins the body. Calculate: Iron Butterfly Calculator · Learn: What Is an Iron Butterfly? · Go deeper: Iron Condor vs Iron Butterfly ### Butterfly spread Buy one lower and one upper option and sell two at the body. A cheap, defined-risk bet that the stock lands on a target price at expiration. Calculate: Butterfly Spread Calculator · Learn: What Is a Butterfly Spread? ### Calendar / diagonal spread Sell a near-dated option and buy a longer-dated one at the same or a different strike. Profits from faster time decay on the short leg when the stock sits near the strike. Calculate: Calendar Spread Calculator · Learn: What Is a Calendar Spread? ## Protective & hedging Not income trades - ways to cap the downside on stock you want to keep. ### Protective put Hold 100 shares and buy a put as insurance. Sets a hard floor under your losses while leaving all the upside open - for the cost of the premium. Calculate: Protective Put Calculator · Learn: What Is a Protective Put? ### Collar A protective put financed by a covered call. Caps both your loss and your gain - cheap or even free downside protection on a position you want to keep. Calculate: Collar Calculator · Learn: What Is a Collar? · Go deeper: Covered Call vs Collar ## Capital efficiency Defined-risk spreads sit at the capital-efficient end of the spectrum. Because a long option caps the loss, your broker only reserves the worst case as margin. For a **credit spread** (a bull put or bear call) that worst case is the strike width minus the credit; for a **debit spread** (a bull call or bear put) it is simply the debit you pay. Either way you tie up a fraction of what the equivalent cash-secured put - or 100 shares - would cost. Calendars and butterflies are cheaper still: the small net debit is the entire outlay and the most you can lose. The trade-off is size. Less capital at risk means a smaller absolute premium, and on the credit side a hard ceiling at the strike width if the stock runs straight through it. At the other end, a **cash-secured put** and the **wheel** deliver the largest dollar premium per ticker but demand the most cash, while a poor man's covered call sits in between - covered-call-style income for the price of a LEAPS instead of 100 shares. Pick a balance you can actually run across a real account, not a theoretical one. For the exact dollar capital each strategy needs, see How Much Money Do You Need to Sell Options? ## Risk profile at a glance - Covered call & cash-secured put: identical risk shape at the same strike - put-call parity forces the math. - The wheel: both of those legs in sequence, plus the directional risk of holding shares during the call leg. - Spreads, condors & butterflies: both ends capped - defined risk, in exchange for less premium. - Protective put & collar: a floor under the downside (the collar caps the upside too). Neither approach is universally better - capital, conviction and tax treatment decide. ## Explore the full cluster - Best income strategies for beginners - a ranked recommendation of where to start, and what to skip. - All calculators & tools - every strategy's calculator in one place. - The guides hub - plain-English explainers grouped by the trader's journey. - The Cash-Secured Puts course - a step-by-step path for beginners. - Strategy Finder - answer a few questions and get pointed to a starting strategy. - All strategy comparisons - the index of every head-to-head "X vs Y" page. - Options glossary - every term defined. TC Theo Chen Founder, The Options Bench Theo has traded options as a retail trader out of Asia for over a decade, focused on income strategies - covered calls, cash-secured puts and the wheel, managed around days-to-expiration and the Greeks rather than gut feel. He builds these calculators to get the awkward edge cases right, the ones most options tools quietly skip.