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How to find puts to sell this week: a checklist you can run every week

You don't find good puts to sell by looking for the biggest premium. You start with stocks you'd want to own, then cross off every name that fails a check. What's left this week is your short list, and some weeks it's empty.

Options guide · 8-minute read · Updated 2026-10-28

Start with a list you build once, not every week

The weekly search only works if the starting list is right. Before any premium, write down 10 to 20 businesses you'd be glad to own at a lower price. That list changes rarely. The week's job is to check which of them is ready.

A name earns a place on the list when:

• You understand how it makes money, in one plain sentence.
• You'd hold it through a bad quarter without panic.
• Its options are busy, with weekly or monthly expiries and real trading on the strikes near the price.
• 100 shares fits your account. Strike × 100 is the cash a cash-secured put locks up.

If you're building that list for the first time, my guide on how to screen stocks for the wheel covers it step by step. This page is the routine you run on it each week, as part of the wheel strategy.

The weekly checklist

Run it once a week, on the same day. Go name by name. One "no" crosses the name off for this week.

1. Earnings before expiry? Look up the next report date. If it falls before your put expires, cross it off. You'd be selling the earnings gap. See checking the earnings date.
2. Other big dates? A drug trial result, a court decision, a big product event. Same rule.
3. Does the cash fit? Strike × 100 must fit your limit for one stock. Many people cap one name at a small slice of the account.
4. Is the option liquid? Check the Open interest and the gap between bid and ask on the strike you want. A wide spread costs you on the way in and the way out. See checking option liquidity.
5. Is the delta in your range? Delta is a rough guide to the odds the market gives the put of ending in the money. Many sellers pick a range, such as 0.20 to 0.30, and stick to it. Our delta for option sellers page explains the trade-off.
6. Is the strike a price you'd pay? Look at the chart. Is the strike at or below the last place price turned around? Would you buy 100 shares there with no option attached?
7. Is the premium worth the risk? Compare it with the stock's usual range. A premium far above normal often means the market knows about something you don't. See IV rank.
8. Is your plan written? If you're assigned, will you sell calls at your cost, or sell the shares at a set price?

Whatever passes all eight is this week's short list. Then you size it, and you still don't have to sell anything.

A dated example screen (an illustration, not a trade idea)

Here is the checklist run on a made-up watchlist for a week in late October 2026. The tickers are invented, and so are the numbers. Your account limit for one name is $6,000.

Five names in, one passes. That's normal. Some weeks nothing passes, and that's the checklist working, not failing.

Notice EEE. It had the cheapest put and the richest premium. It failed twice: the delta was outside the range, and the only reason to own it was the story. That's the name a premium-first search would have picked.

What the one that passed looks like

Still made up, still an illustration. DDD trades at $50. You sell a put about a month out with a $46 strike for $0.60. You collect $60. Your broker sets aside $4,600.

Your break-even is $45.40: the strike minus the premium.

Passing the checklist doesn't stop a loss. It means the loss lands on a stock you chose, at a price you'd pay, in a size the account can carry. The cash-secured put calculator runs the same table with your own numbers.

Weekly expiries or monthly?

You can run the checklist every week and still sell puts that expire a month out. The routine is weekly; the expiry is your choice.

• Weekly expiries pay less per trade and mean more decisions. A sudden move has less time to reverse before expiry.
• Monthly expiries pay more per trade and need fewer decisions. They also sit through more news, so check step 2 carefully.

Pick one and stay with it for a while, so you can tell whether the routine works for you.

Account note: in Canada, covered calls are widely allowed in a TFSA or RRSP, while cash-secured puts depend on the broker. Options permissions differ by broker in the US and Canada, so check yours.

Mistakes that skip the checklist

• Sorting by premium first. The biggest premium is usually the biggest risk. My page on wheeling high-IV momentum stocks shows how one gap eats months of it.
• Adding a name to the list because it's in the news this week. The list is built calm, not on the day.
• Selling the week's put because you sold one last week. An empty short list means no trade.
• Forgetting the cash rule on pricey stocks. One contract on a high-priced name can be most of an account; see the wheel on Micron.

Questions