How to Find Cash-Secured Put Candidates

The checklist

A good cash-secured put candidate clears five tests. Skip any one and you're gambling, not selling premium.

• 1. You'd own it. Assignment means you buy 100 shares at the strike. If you wouldn't want the stock at that price, don't sell the put — full stop.
• 2. Premium is rich. Look for IV Rank ≥ 50 so you're selling volatility that's high for this stock and likely to fall (how high should IV Rank be?).
• 3. No landmine in the window. No earnings, FDA decision or live litigation before expiry. A high risk score on a fat premium is a warning, not an opportunity.
• 4. The strike is liquid. Open interest of 100+ and a tight bid/ask, or you'll get a terrible fill and can't manage the position.
• 5. Assignment odds match your intent. ~0.20 delta if you mostly want to keep the cash; ~0.30–0.40 if you'd be glad to get the shares.

The discount math

Your real entry price if assigned is strike − premium. Selling a $48 put for $1.20 on a $50 stock means you either keep $120 for the trade, or buy at an effective $46.80 — a 6.4% discount to today's price. That margin of safety is the whole point.

Do it in one screen

Running that checklist by hand across 500 stocks is the tedious part — so the cash-secured put scanner does it for you: it ranks candidates by annualized return, shows IV Rank, assignment odds, breakeven and liquidity, and gates every row by the catalyst risk score so earnings traps are filtered out by default. It's the same engine as the Wheel scanner, focused on the put leg.

Start conservative

Open the scanner, set conservative aggressiveness and a low max-risk, and you'll get a short list of liquid, low-catalyst puts on quality names — exactly the candidates the checklist is looking for.