Premium Tracker grades every closed position on a 0–100 scale using 7 weighted factors. But there's an intentional philosophy behind how scores are assigned — one that reflects how experienced wheel traders actually think.
It is built on a bullish assumption: you want to own quality stocks and use covered calls as your primary income engine. If that describes you, the grades will make sense immediately.
You own 100 shares and sell a call option above the current price. You collect premium upfront and agree to sell your shares at the strike price if the stock rises that high by expiration.
You hold enough cash to buy 100 shares and sell a put option below the current price. You collect premium upfront and agree to buy the stock at the strike price if it falls that low by expiration.
The Wheel Strategy isn't one continuous motion — it has two distinct phases, each with a different job. Understanding which phase you're in changes how you should measure success.
Selling cash-secured puts to acquire shares at your target price. This phase ends the moment you get assigned.
Owning shares and selling covered calls repeatedly — cycle after cycle. This is where most traders spend most of their time.
When selling CSPs, you're waiting to get assigned. But stocks trend upward over time. There's a real risk the stock runs past your put strike and you're left with ever-smaller premiums on increasingly OTM puts — or worse, you never get assigned at all and watch the stock drift out of range.
Once you own shares, you collect premium every cycle, participate in upside up to your strike, and even getting called away is a profitable outcome. The "worst case" on the CC side — shares called away at a gain — is genuinely a good problem to have.
For a cash-secured put, expiring worthless is a missed opportunity. You collected premium, but didn't get the stock you wanted at your target cost basis. For the wheel to work as intended, you need to get assigned and advance to the CC phase.
Each closed position is scored 0–100 across up to 7 components. The two optional components (Delta Discipline and Execution Quality) are skipped if data isn't present — remaining weights are renormalized to always sum to 100%.
How close the stock price finished to your strike at expiry or close. The tighter the finish, the higher the score. This rewards selling at the right strike — not just any strike.
Strategy-aware scoring: Covered Calls score highest when they expire worthless (max premium kept, no shares called away). Cash-Secured Puts score highest when assigned (you get the stock you wanted at your target price). This is the source of the intentional bias described above.
Your weekly yield on capital deployed: (net premium ÷ capital at risk) ÷ weeks held. Rewards generating more income per dollar, per week — the core metric of a productive wheel.
Annualized return on capital. The same lens as Premium Efficiency but extended across a full year — rewards consistent, repeatable returns over time rather than one-off windfalls.
How well you managed the position: held to expiry for full premium, or closed early locking in 50%+ profit. Penalizes rolling into worse positions or holding losers into assignment when that wasn't the goal.
Scores how well your entry delta (Transaction Log, col R) falls in the 0.15–0.35 sweet spot for the wheel strategy. Trades entered outside this range score lower. Automatically skipped — with weights renormalized — if delta was not recorded.
How close your fill was to the bid, minimizing slippage. Requires Bid at Fill and Ask at Fill columns (auto-populated via E*TRADE™ sync on the Premium tier). Automatically skipped if data is not present.
Numeric scores are converted to letter grades using fixed thresholds. The same scale applies to both covered calls and cash-secured puts.
A |
90 – 100
Exceptional execution — right strike, ideal outcome for your strategy type, strong weekly yield, and clean trade management.
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B |
80 – 89
Strong trade — minor imprecision in strike selection, slightly below-target yield, or a good outcome that was just shy of ideal.
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C |
70 – 79
Average — profitable, but something was off. Common causes: wrong outcome type (e.g., a CSP that expired worthless), low weekly yield, or poor strike selection.
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D |
60 – 69
Below average — multiple factors underperformed. Still profitable but the trade didn't execute the strategy well.
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F |
< 60
Poor execution or a losing trade. Review what went wrong — strike too far out, bad management, or unfavorable outcome.
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Premium Tracker assumes you are neutral-to-bullish on your underlying stocks — that you want to get assigned on your puts and own the shares, and that selling covered calls is how you generate income, cycle after cycle. The grading system is built on that stance. If a CSP expired worthless and you're wondering why the grade is low, now you know: the wheel didn't turn. If that philosophy doesn't match your approach, the grades may not reflect your intent — and that's worth knowing before you draw conclusions.