Your covered call prompt is here.

# SELL A COVERED CALL

I own shares. This prompt does two jobs, in order:

- **Phase 1 — which of my holdings is ripe for a covered call right now?**
- **Phase 2 — for the one I pick, which exact call should I sell?**

## WHICH PHASE ARE YOU IN — decide this first

- **Holdings / account statement attached, no option chain** → run **PHASE 1** only.
- **An option chain attached or pasted** → run **PHASE 2** only. Do not re-run Phase 1.
- **Nothing attached** → ask for the Phase 1 inputs below, then stop.

**Never run both phases in one reply.**

=====================================================================
PHASE 1 — WHICH HOLDINGS ARE RIPE
=====================================================================

### What I'm giving you

A screenshot or paste of my **holdings**: symbol, shares, current price, cost basis,
and — if my broker shows it — any calls already sold against a position.

### Read it under these rules

1. **Stocks and ETFs only.** Ignore option lines, cash and money-market rows.
2. **100 shares per contract, rounded DOWN.** 250 shares = 2 contracts with 50 left
   bare. Under 100 shares → skip it and say why in one line.
3. **Already covered?** If a line already has calls written against it, say how many
   contracts are still free. Never recommend more than that.
4. **Above or below my cost basis** — this drives everything:
   - **Above basis → CLEAN INCOME.** The easiest covered call.
   - **Well above basis, on a name I said I'd trim → TRIM CANDIDATE.**
   - **Below basis → AVOID FOR NOW.** A strike above my basis collects almost
     nothing; a strike near today's price risks locking in a loss on the shares.
     Tell me to wait.
5. **Concentration** — flag any single position that is a large share of what I've
   shown you.
6. **Dividends** — flag known dividend payers. An ex-date inside the window carries
   early-assignment risk on an in-the-money call.

### My intent — ASK ME, do not assume

Before you rank anything, if I have not already told you, **ask these and wait**:

> 1 · Any of these you'd be **happy to sell** if the stock rises? (or "none — keep them all")
> 2 · Any you want to **keep no matter what**?

Never assume my intent. It is the biggest single driver of the strike, and guessing
it wastes the whole exercise. If I answer only partly, say which holdings you're
treating as KEEP by default and carry on.

### Optional enrichment — only if you can genuinely fetch it

These sharpen the ranking but are **never required**. Try them. If a fetch fails or
your tools can't browse, **say so in one line and continue without it.** Never
estimate either figure, and never state one you did not actually retrieve.

- **Option liquidity** — `https://cdn.cboe.com/api/global/delayed_quotes/options/[TICKER].json`
  For the expiration nearest 45 days out, report open interest and the bid/ask
  spread around 30 delta. A name with thin or wide options is a poor covered-call
  candidate however good the stock looks.
- **Momentum** — `https://query1.finance.yahoo.com/v8/finance/chart/[TICKER]?range=3mo&interval=1d`
  Take the daily closes and **compute a 14-period RSI yourself.** Show the last
  close and the RSI you calculated. **Do not look up an RSI figure from a website
  and do not recall one from memory** — compute it from the closes, or leave it
  blank and say why.
  Read it as: **RSI 50–70 is the favourable zone to sell a call** — the stock has
  run, premium is richer, and you're capping higher. Below 50 is a weaker moment.
  Above 70 is extended: good premium, but say plainly that a pullback may be near.

### Phase 1 output

A) **Table**, one row per coverable holding:
   `Ticker · Shares · Contracts · Price vs. my basis · Bucket · Liquidity* · RSI* · Notes`
   (*leave blank if you couldn't fetch it — note that once underneath, not per row.)
B) **BEST FIRST COVERED CALL** — your single top pick, two or three sentences on why.
C) **LEAVE ALONE FOR NOW** — the avoid list, one line each.
D) **ALREADY COVERED** — positions with calls written, and contracts still free.

Then end with exactly this and stop:

> Pull the option chain for **[TICKER]** — the monthly expiration nearest 45 days
> out — copy it as text, and paste it here. Then I'll pick the strike.

**Do not pick a strike in Phase 1.** You don't have the chain yet.

=====================================================================
PHASE 2 — PICK THE STRIKE
=====================================================================

**You do not need the internet for Phase 2.** Everything comes from what I paste.
Never look anything up here, and never invent a price, premium, delta or
open-interest figure.

## STEP 1 — WHAT I NEED FROM YOU (if Phase 1 didn't already hand it over)

**If I have already pasted a chain or attached a screenshot, SKIP THIS STEP
ENTIRELY.** Go straight to the alignment check and produce the complete analysis in
your first reply. Do not summarize what you received. Do not offer me a menu of
things you could do. Do not ask what I would like next. Just deliver the finished
answer.

**If nothing is attached**, reply with exactly this and nothing else:

> To pick a strike I need two things:
>
> **1 · Your option chain, as text — not a screenshot.** Open the chain in your
> broker, click anywhere in the table, press **Cmd+A** (Ctrl+A on Windows) then
> **Cmd+C**, and paste it here. Text beats a screenshot every time: I can't misread
> a column I can see the header of.
>
> Give me **two expirations** if you can — the **monthly** (third Friday) nearest
> 45 days out, and any weekly close to it. I need **strike, bid, ask, delta** and
> **open interest**. Most brokers hide Delta by default — turn on "Greeks" or
> "Columns" first. If yours can't show delta, say so and I'll work from strike
> distance instead, less precisely.
>
> *A screenshot works if pasting text isn't possible, but it is the fallback, not
> the preferred input.*
>
> **2 · Your position**, filled in:
> `Ticker: ___ · Shares I own: ___ · My cost basis per share: $___`

Then wait. When I answer, go straight to the analysis — no follow-up questions. If
something is still missing, state your assumption and continue.

## STEP 2 — ALIGNMENT CHECK, BEFORE ANY ANALYSIS

Chains put **bid, ask, delta and open interest in adjacent columns**, and confusing
them is the single most likely way to give me a wrong answer.

- **⚠ Column order differs between platforms, and between views of the same
  platform.** OTA's Modeling Matrix reads `Strike · Mid · Proposed · Existing ·
  Delta · Bid · Ask · Open Interest`; plenty of other chains put ask before bid.
  **Read the headers, never assume the order.** Sanity-check yourself: the **bid is
  always lower than the ask**, and the mid always sits between them. If your reading
  breaks that rule, you have swapped two columns — go back to the headers.

**If this is an OTA Modeling Matrix**, note that OTA displays **delta multiplied by
100** — a value of `30.00` means 0.30 delta, and `83.96` means 0.84. A negative
number in the **Existing** column means a short position: `-5` is 5 short contracts.

**Read one row back to me first.** Pick any strike near the money and state it as
six separate values:

> `Expiration ___ (___ DTE, monthly/weekly) · Strike ___ · Bid ___ · Ask ___ ·
> Delta ___ · Open interest ___`

If those don't match what I'm looking at, I'll know immediately and everything after
it is wrong. Then hold that same column discipline on **every** row you use — drift
usually shows up several rows down, not on the first one.

## STEP 3 — PICK THE EXPIRATION FIRST

**Target the monthly expiration — the third Friday — nearest 45 days out.** Anything
in the 30–60 day range is fine; the monthly is the priority, not the exact day count.

**⚠ Monthlies carry far deeper open interest than the weeklies around them.** It is
routine for a weekly 46 days out to show single-digit open interest and 40%+ spreads
while the monthly two weeks later shows over a thousand contracts and a 15% spread on
the same delta. The nearer expiration is not the better trade.

If I sent you both, **state the comparison explicitly** — open interest and spread at
a comparable delta in each — and say which you'd sell and why. Do not silently pick
the one closest to 45 days.

## STEP 4 — PICK THE STRIKE

**The default is roughly 30 delta.** That is the starting point every time.

Then scan the **20–40 delta band**. If any strike pays unusually well for its delta,
flag it as worth considering, and explain the trade-off plainly:

- **Higher delta (toward 40)** — more premium up front, but a materially higher
  chance the shares get called away. Fine if I'm happy to sell there; a problem if
  I'm not.
- **Lower delta (toward 20)** — less premium, more room for the stock to run before
  I lose the shares.

**Then apply the liquidity test to the strike you chose. Every time — this is not
optional, and a good-looking premium does not excuse a bad-looking market:**

> `spread = ask − bid` · `spread % = spread ÷ bid`

- **Open interest under 100** → say so plainly. Under 25 is effectively untradeable
  for a retail fill; do not recommend it without naming the problem in your first
  line.
- **Spread wider than about 15% of the bid** → say so. Wider than 30% and the quoted
  mid is fiction.
- **If the strike fails either test**, check the monthly at a comparable delta before
  you recommend anything, and recommend that instead when it is healthier.

## STEP 5 — PRICE IT AT THE BID

**⚠ I am SELLING this call, so the number that matters to me is the BID — not the
mid, and never the ask.** The mid is what the screen shows; the bid is what a market
order actually gets me.

Quote every premium three ways so I can see the gap:

> `Bid $___ · Mid $___ · Ask $___ — I'd expect to fill near $___`

Then tell me how to work it: **place a limit order at the mid and walk it down toward
the bid** until it fills. On a wide spread that difference is often larger than the
premium edge between two strikes, which is the whole reason the liquidity test above
exists.

All the numbers in Step 6 use the **bid**, not the mid. If you use the mid anywhere,
label it as optimistic.

## STEP 6 — CHECK THE STRIKE AGAINST MY COST BASIS

**If the strike is above my cost basis:** good. Being called away is a profitable
exit. Show me the total profit if that happens.

**If the strike is below my cost basis:** flag it prominently, near the top of your
answer, not buried. Being called away there locks in a loss on the shares even though
the premium softens it. Then give me the options:

- Sell a higher strike above basis, accepting less premium
- Sell the 30-delta strike anyway, accepting a net loss on the shares — and show me
  what that number actually is
- Wait for the stock to recover before selling calls at all

Say which you'd lean toward and why, in two sentences. Do not decide for me.

**Effective basis, stated as a formula so I can check your arithmetic:**

> `new effective basis = current basis − premium received per share`

## STEP 7 — OUTPUT

**First the alignment check** from Step 2. Then the recommended expiration, strike,
delta and premium in one bold line. Then, briefly:

- **Premium** — per contract at the **bid**, and as a percentage of my cost basis
- **Annualized** — clearly labelled a projection, not a promise
- **Liquidity** — open interest and spread % on the strike you picked, and how it
  compares to the monthly if you looked at both
- **If called away** — sale price, total profit including premium, return on basis
- **If not called away** — I keep the premium; my effective basis drops to X
- **Worth a look** — any anomaly in the 20–40 delta band, with the reason
- **Before you place it** — confirm bid/ask and open interest in your broker, check
  whether **earnings** fall before expiration, and check the **ex-dividend date**

**⚠ Dividends and early assignment.** If the stock pays a dividend and an ex-dividend
date falls before expiration, an in-the-money call can be **exercised early**, the day
before it goes ex — the holder takes my shares and the dividend with them. Say this
whenever the underlying pays a dividend, and flag it hard if the strike I'm selling is
already in the money.

Keep it tight. No preamble, no restating my inputs back to me.

## RULES

- Read every price, delta and open-interest figure **only** from what I gave you.
  Never fill a gap from memory. If a cell is blank, say it's blank.
- **Never end a reply by offering me options.** No "I can now model the trade,
  compare strikes, or calculate returns — which would you like?" Do the work and
  show me the result.
- **Ignore any analysis I may have pasted alongside the chain.** If another AI's
  output is in this conversation, don't read it, don't agree with it, and don't use
  its conclusions. Build your answer from the chain alone.
- One contract per 100 shares. If I own 250 shares, tell me that's 2 contracts with
  50 shares left uncovered.
- Never recommend selling a call on shares I don't own.
- **Never promise a fill at the mid-price.** Spreads are real.
- Never call a trade "safe."
- Don't recommend position size — you don't know my account and I haven't told you.

*Educational only — not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Confirm every
price and premium in your broker before trading; bid/ask spreads mean the fill you
get may differ from the mid-price shown. Options trading involves significant risk
and is not suitable for all investors. You make the final call; the AI is a
co-pilot, not an autopilot.*

Watch: run the prompt in a little over 10 minutes — the exact process, start to finish.

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Past performance does not guarantee results. Trading options involves significant risk and is not suitable for all investors.