Most traders focus on buying stocks, hoping prices will go up. But if you want to generate consistent income, selling options is one of the best strategies out there.
It allows you to collect premium, lower your cost basis and reduce risk — all while keeping capital flexible.
Why Selling Options Works
The key to selling options is understanding how to use probability in your favor. Unlike buying options, which requires a stock to move in a specific direction quickly, selling them lets you profit as long as the stock stays within a reasonable range.
My go-to approach is selling cash-secured puts and covered calls.
When I sell a put, I collect premium upfront, and if the stock drops to my strike price, I’m willing to own it at a discount. If it doesn’t, I keep the premium and move on to the next trade.
Covered calls work the same way — I sell a call against stocks I already own at least 100 shares of, collecting premium in exchange for agreeing to sell shares at a higher price.
Another great strategy is using ratio spreads.
These involve selling more options than you buy, creating a setup where you can profit in multiple scenarios. For example, I recently traded Nvidia (NVDA) using a ratio spread at the 115-by-110 strike. As long as the stock stayed above 110 by expiration, I made money.
If it dropped below that, I had a hedge in place to limit losses.
How I Structure My Trades
Instead of tying up capital in stocks, I prefer to keep about 50% of my portfolio in option trades. The rest is a mix of stock ownership and commodities like gold and Bitcoin.
Most of my trades are structured for income — not speculation — so I focus on probabilities and time decay.
For example, when I sell a put on Amazon (AMZN), I look for a strike price that gives me a solid credit while keeping my break-even price well below recent support levels.
If assigned shares, I can sell covered calls to further reduce my cost. The goal is to keep stacking premium and avoiding big directional risks.
Selling options isn’t about chasing high returns. It’s about building steady, repeatable income while keeping your portfolio flexible. Stocks will always move, but with the right option strategies, you can get paid no matter what stocks are doing.
I’ll see you in the markets.
Chris Pulver
Chris Pulver Trading
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*This is for informational and educational purposes only. There is inherent risk in trading, so trade at your own risk.
P.S. Wall Street Says the MAGS Are Officially Dead…
Wall Street analysts are officially declaring the Magnificent Seven, or MAGS as I like to say, dead.
They claim the tech giants are decoupling. They claim AI spending is getting out of hand…
And they believe the big tech run has finally run out of gas.
Look… they might be right about the stocks splitting up.
Or they might be dead wrong.
Either way, Q2 earnings are hitting right now… and the price action is about to get wild.
If you’re sitting at your screen trying to guess whether Nvidia, Apple or Tesla swings higher or lower on earnings day… you’re basically flipping a coin with your account.
Because this time, the market is playing by a whole new set of rules.
While everyday traders stress over picking sides, Lance, Roger, Emily and I decided to lock ourselves in a room and map out this entire earnings blitz together.
We put our best ideas into a complete Mag 7 Earnings Playbook before our upcoming July 28 roundtable event.
Inside this free guide, we rank all seven tech giants based on post-earnings profit potential… reveal which single report will trigger the next leg of the AI trade…
And highlight the No. 1 announcement that could impact the entire market.
Best of all?
We show you how to set up what I call the “two-way profit trade.”
It’s a simple setup designed to help you target profit from these massive earnings moves without ever guessing if the stock goes up or down.
As long as the stock moves, you can get paid.
No direction guessing…
Just a straightforward plan for the upcoming earnings chaos.
We’re handing over this full playbook for free to you when you reserve your spot for our Roundtable before July 28th.
Be sure to grab your free Mag 7 Playbook and lock in your Roundtable spot before Tuesday.
