Educational resource. Not financial advice. Illustrative bands only — not a recommendation of account size or strategy. Agentic options trading involves substantial risk of loss, including assignment into stock. Not affiliated with Robinhood Markets, Inc.

Wheel Capital & Timelines

What selling cash-secured premium actually commits: how much cash locks, for how long, what can happen while it is locked, and why frequent short-premium work needs more capital than a busy scanner.

Companion desk ledger: Agentic Wheel desk. Equity day-scalps are a separate sleeve — see the scalp playbook.

Investment thesis (one paragraph)

Sell cash-secured short premium on names you are willing to own, targeting 30–45 DTE puts (~0.20–0.30Δ), taking profits at ~50% of credit or closing by ≤21 DTE. Capital is the product: every open CSP locks strike × 100 of cash until buy-to-close, expire, or assignment. Frequency is limited by that lock — not by how many names you can scan.

Book split (sleeves)

Treat sleeves as hard partitions on a small cash Agentic book that also runs equity scalps:

| Sleeve | Role | Starter rule | While open | |--------|------|--------------|------------| | Wheel collateral | Secure 1 CSP (or hold 100 shares + CC) | ≤ ~40% of buying power | Locked until BTC / assignment / call-away | | Equity scalp | Opening-range / end-of-day small equity risk | Keep a fixed residual free (illustrative floor on the order of hundreds of dollars) | Day-trade; flat by session hard times | | Buffer | Fees, rejects, assign drag | Remainder — do not CSP to the wall | Soft reserve |

Sizing formula (illustrative):

max_strike ≈ floor( (0.40 × buying_power) / 100 )
residual after CSP must leave the scalp sleeve intact
collateral = strike × 100 × contracts   # starter: 1 contract

If the best willing-to-own name needs more collateral than the band allows → skip and publish why. Do not “almost” fit.

On a small agentic wallet, a ~40% starter band often means max strikes in the tens of dollars for one contract — not mega-cap full CSPs.

What gets tied up, and for how long

Cash-secured put

| Item | Tied | Typical duration under manage rules | Ends when | |------|------|-------------------------------------|-----------| | Cash collateral | strike × 100 | Days to ~3 weeks | BTC @ ~50% credit, BTC @ ≤21 DTE, expire OTM, or assignment | | Opportunity | Cannot reuse that cash for another CSP | Same | Same |

| Path | Rough timeline | Capital outcome | |------|----------------|-----------------| | A — Early winner | Often 3–14 calendar days if ~50% hits | Collateral freed; keep part of credit | | B — Time stop | Enter 30–45 DTE → manage by ≤21 DTE left → often ~1–3 weeks | BTC; free cash | | C — Assign | Through expiry (or earlier ITM) | Cash → 100 shares |

Starter desk: max one open CSP — one Wheel income unit at a time.

Assigned shares

Assignment is a state change, not automatically a “failed” trade: income book → stock book with optional covered calls. Expect weeks to months if you keep selling calls; full stock drawdown risk; overnight/gap risk; no same-day flat clock like equity scalps.

Covered call

Shares stay tied; upside capped above the short call; called away returns cash (+ keeps call premium).

What can happen while capital is locked

| Event | While CSP open | While holding shares (± CC) | |-------|----------------|-----------------------------| | Underlying drifts down | Put ITM; assign risk rises | Real stock drawdown | | Underlying rips up | Often path A (50% BTC) | Short call may be tested; upside capped | | IV crush / spike | Helps or hurts short premium marks | Same for short call; stock can gap | | Earnings / binary | Hard reject into window | Do not hold short premium into print | | Assignment / early exercise | Cash becomes shares | Short call can be assigned early | | Second CSP | Blocked by design (starter) | Usually blocked until shares called/sold |

Honest failure mode: assignment turns reserved cash into a full 100-share position you must manage or exit — a drawdown can exceed many months of collected premium.

When the desk acts (illustrative ET)

| Window | Action | |--------|--------| | 09:30–10:00 | No new short premium (open auction) | | Mid-morning settle | Scout / optional live CSP or CC | | Through early afternoon | Manage (50% / 21 DTE) | | Late day | Equity EOD scalp owns the desk — no new Wheel |

Cadence on a small starter book: frequent scouts and skips, not frequent fills. Rough band of closed CSP cycles per month is low if you hit early winners; lower still if assigned into stock.

Minimum capital for “frequent” short-premium

Define frequent as running ≥2 independent CSP sleeves most weeks (or replacing capital quickly after 50% BTC) without starving the equity scalp sleeve.

| Goal | Rough scale (illustrative) | |------|----------------------------| | One liquid CSP in mid-teens–low-$30 names + scalp sleeve | Small five-figure buying power | | Comfortable one CSP with fewer “strike too high” skips | Higher five figures | | Two concurrent CSPs (or CSP + share lot) without >60% BP in Wheel | Low–mid five figures toward ~$20k–$30k+ | | Multi-name rotation (3 sleeves) | Substantially more |

Premium income scales with contracts × credit, not scanner busyness. Do not loosen collateral % to fake frequency — add capital or accept selective skips.

Lifecycle storyboard

[Idle cash]
    │  scout skip → still idle (publish why)
    ▼
[CSP open]  collateral locked
    ├─ BTC @ ~50% or ≤21 DTE → cash free
    └─ Assigned → 100 shares ± CC → called away or sell stock → idle

Before locking capital

Willing to own 100 shares at strike for weeks
Earnings clean for the short option life
Collateral fits the starter band; scalp residual intact
Accept max one Wheel unit (starter)
Accept that “frequent” may mean frequent sits, not frequent fills
If assignment is intolerable at this size → do not sell the put

Disclaimer

Educational only. Not an offer to buy or sell securities. Illustrative parameters are not a performance guarantee or account-size advice. Past patterns are not future results. AI agents can err. You are responsible for every agent-placed order. This site is not a broker-dealer and is not affiliated with Robinhood. See /disclaimer.