Week 31 — Selling Covered Calls for Retirement Income
new opportunities in UBER, AAPL and MSFT
Last week, the market did its job: it manufactured anxiety with a slow, grinding 2.37% drop in the S&P.
That's the primary function of the machine - to provoke investors to make emotional and costly mistakes.
But that machine has an exploitable flaw.
The volatility it uses as a weapon is a commodity that can be harvested: we made $805 in realized cash income last week.
This report is your weekly masterclass in converting market anxiety into a reliable income stream with options.
Here is exactly what is inside:
Full Strategy Breakdown: An inside look at our "Live Trading Lab" philosophy and the VADER screening engine that powers every decision.
Performance Deep Dive: A step-by-step analysis of how last week’s challenged trades were rolled to generate the $805 in cash.
New Actionable Trades: A complete list of this week’s VADER-approved covered call opportunities, sorted by Conservative, Balanced, and Aggressive risk tiers.
The Implementation Playbook: Our precise game plan for managing the portfolio and deploying new capital in the week ahead.
Strategy Recap: A Shift From Speculation to Underwriting
To understand the results, you must first understand the philosophy.
At The Multiplier, we do not guess or chase market sentiment. Our approach is built on a system that fundamentally shifts your role from a passive investor hoping for price appreciation to an active underwriter of risk.
Like an insurance company, we identify solid "properties" (quality stocks) and sell "policies" (options) against them, collecting a steady stream of premium from a market that consistently overpays for certainty.
This is achieved through two core components: my proprietary screening system and the unique educational framework.
The System: VADER (Volatility Arbitrage Dividend Enhancement Return)
The biggest challenge in the market is not predicting the future; it is filtering the present.
VADER is the system we built to do just that. It culls a universe of 3,217 optionable stocks down to a handful of elite candidates suitable for income generation.
VADER stands for Volatility Arbitrage Dividend Enhancement Return. It is a proprietary algorithm I developed with a team of quants during my institutional trading days.
Here’s how it works:
Step 1: The Macro Scan. VADER begins by scanning all 3,217 stocks, instantly filtering them by critical metrics: liquidity, Implied Volatility (IV) Rank (to ensure premium is worth collecting), and upcoming earnings dates (to avoid binary gambles).
Step 2: The Quality Gauntlet. The remaining stocks are then forced through 16 strict quality filters. Crucially, these filters are designed to screen out companies that use excessive debt or accounting tricks to appear healthy.
Step 3: The Tier Sort. Only the stocks that survive this gauntlet are sorted into three actionable tiers, based on their potential risk and reward profile:
🔒 Conservative: Targeting stable 8-12% annualized yields.
⚖️ Balanced: The core of our strategy, targeting 15-25% yields.
💰 Aggressive Income: A specialized strategy targeting 25%+ yields.
The final, vetted picks are pushed to our premium subscribers every Thursday (Cash-Secured Puts) and Sunday (Covered Calls).
The output is a curated, high-conviction set of opportunities.
The Framework: The Live Trading Lab
A list of opportunities is useless without a plan for managing them.
This is where most services fail, because they provide an entry idea but abandon you when the position becomes challenging.
I wanted this project to be different.
It’s built as a Live Trading Lab - a flight simulator for building trade management skills. Every week, I build trades based on the VADER output and commit to tracking the entire lifecycle of every single trade idea, publicly.
My vision is to provide you with an over-the-shoulder mentorship experience where you can watch the entire lifecycle of every single trade - the wins, the managed losers, the rolls, the assignments, etc.
The goal is to build your muscle memory for trade management without you having to risk a single dollar of your own capital.
Performance Snapshot: Thriving in a Down Market
Let's connect our strategy to last week's results.
This section is a crucial part of our Live Trading Lab, as it demonstrates how a systematic framework allows us to navigate the market with clarity and control.
So, our model portfolio currently holds 43 open covered call positions.
It is essential to understand the psychological shield we use to manage this portfolio: the Traffic Light System.
This system is designed to defeat the two most destructive forces in investing: fear-based panic and greed-based impulsiveness.
Here is the current health of our portfolio, as categorized by this system:
🟢 Green (On Autopilot): 16 positions (30%)
🟡 Yellow (Monitoring Triggers): 4 positions (9%)
🔴 Red (Requiring Action): 22 positions (58%)
The Green and Yellow Zones: Patience and Preparation
The 13 positions in the Green Zone (🟢) are benefiting from simple inaction. The options we sold are losing value each day as time passes - a process known as theta decay - which is precisely our goal.
The 4 positions in the Yellow Zone (🟡) are approaching a pre-defined price trigger. We have a plan ready, but are waiting for the market to dictate if and when that plan should be executed.
The Red Zone (🔴): Where We Execute Our Plan and Generate Income
For most investors, seeing over half a portfolio in a category labeled "Red" would be cause for alarm.
In our system, the opposite is true. Red does not mean panic; it means precision.
A position turns Red when it has decisively breached a key level, signaling that the time for monitoring is over and the time for action has arrived.
The $805 in realized premium last week did not appear out of thin air.
It was generated by methodically executing pre-planned procedures only on the six positions that met their triggers:
Let's unpack the anatomy of these trades to see our rules in practice.
Below, I packaged last week’s actions into five beginner-friendly case studies that explain what I did, why, and how you can apply the same rules in your trades.
Case Study 1: Roll Up & Out for Credit (AMD 149 → 160)
→ What We Did: Bought back the AMD 08/17 149 call and simultaneously sold the 09/20 160 call, collecting $1.60 in premium.
→ Why: On July 28, AMD closed at $173.66 - well above the 149 strike - making assignment likely if we’d kept the short call.
Rolling “up” to a higher strike reduces assignment risk, and rolling “out” to a later expiry replenishes time premium (theta) for continued income.
Key Principle: If an in-the-money (ITM) covered call exposes you to assignment risk, use a roll up & out - buy to close the old call, sell a new one at a higher strike with more time value - to stay in the game and collect extra premium.
Case Study 2: Close ITM for a Small Debit (AMD 155)
→ What We Did: Bought back the AMD 08/17 155 call for a $0.30 debit and did not open a new position.
→ Why: By July 28, AMD’s extrinsic value on the 155 call had shrunk to $0.30, making a roll unattractive. Paying a small debit to close frees your 100 shares immediately, allowing redeployment into richer income opportunities
Key Principle: When an ITM call’s remaining time premium (extrinsic) is minimal, a buy to close can be the most efficient move - accept a small fixed cost to avoid tying up capital and redeploy into better trades.
Case Study 3: Deep-ITM Roll (GOOG 185 → 190)
→ What We Did: Closed the GOOG 08/15 185 call and sold the 09/20 190 call, netting about $1.65.
→ Why: On July 30, Alphabet closed at $197.44, pushing the 185 call deep ITM. Rolling to a higher strike retains our bullish view on the shares but caps risk above the new level, while the longer expiry adds fresh theta.
Key Principle: For deep-ITM calls, a roll up & out is still ideal: you reduce assignment risk and collect new premium by selling a call with both a higher strike and later expiry.
Case Study 4: Pure “Roll Up” Strike Adjustment (MSFT 510 → 525)
→ What We Did: Bought back the MSFT 08/15 510 call and sold the 09/19 525 call for a $1.70 credit.
→ Why: At $513.24 on July 30, the 510 call was just ITM. We chose a roll up only - same monthly expiry but a higher strike - because the 525 call still had enough extrinsic to justify the move, reducing assignment risk without extending duration excessively.
Key Principle: When available extrinsic at a higher strike offsets your buy-back cost, a roll up (no date change) can simplify adjustments while managing risk.
Case Study 5: Seasonal “Out & Up” Roll (CCL 26 → 29)
→ What We Did: Closed the CCL 09/20 26 call and sold the 10/17 29 call, collecting $2.10.
→ Why: Closed at $30.14 on July 30 amid peak summer travel, creating a rich time premium in its options. By rolling “out & up” - to both a later expiry and higher strike - we banked extra extrinsic from seasonal volatility and moved our short strike safely above spot.
Key Principle: In high-volatility or seasonally strong markets, an out & up roll maximizes premium capture while preserving a buffer against sharp rallies.
To Sum Up:
Set Clear Triggers (e.g., ITM threshold, minimal extrinsic level).
Choose the Right Adjustment:
Roll Up & Out when delta is high and extrinsic remains ample.
Buy to Close when remaining extrinsic is too small to justify a roll.
Roll Up only if a higher strike alone controls risk comfortably.
Execute Mechanically on your “best day” - no second-guessing.
Track Results and refine your trigger levels over time.
Introduction to New VADER Picks
Now, for the actionable part of our Lab. VADER has scanned the market and identified a new slate of opportunities.
CRITICAL DISCLAIMER: The tables below show how I screen for income. They are not trade recommendations, signals, or financial advice. Use them as an educational foundation only - back‑test, sanity‑check, and consult a licensed professional before risking a nickel.
🔒 Tier 1: Conservative Income
The Philosophy: These are a bit boring, but they keep your portfolio warm with consistent, high-probability income. We're looking for low deltas (a proxy for the probability of being assigned), a healthy out-of-the-money (OTM) buffer, and strong annualized yields.
This AMD Aug 15 $185 call is the quintessential Conservative-Income trade.
1. The Buffer is Our Shield
With stock at $171.70 and strike $185, we’ve got a 7.75% cushion before shares are called away. That means AMD needs to rally an extra 7¾% in just 12 days - highly unlikely under normal conditions.
2. Exceptional Yield-for-Risk
We collect $390 on a $17,170 position (100 shares), which is 2.27% of capital in only 12 days. Annualized, that’s roughly 55.01% - a rare dislocation where you’re paid handsomely for taking on a risk that has under a 30% probability (Delta = 0.299) of materializing.
3. Low-Probability Event
Delta near 0.30 means the market assigns less than a one-in-three chance this option finishes in the money.
Why Only One Tier 1 Trade This Week
Under my strict Tier 1 filter (Δ≤0.30, OTM≥5%, ≤90 days), no other front-month contract in the stock universe meets all three criteria - so AMD stands alone as the safest, highest-yield conservative play.
For Premium members, the full blueprint continues below.
It details the 8 remaining trades in our Balanced and Aggressive tiers, including setups on UBER AAPL and MSFT - where you can lock in over $8,200 in premium for an instant 7.3% return.
Upgrade to Premium to unlock the complete analysis and receive:
The Full VADER Trade Sheet: All new opportunities delivered every Thursday and Sunday.
This Week's Implementation Playbook: My precise plan for managing all new and existing positions.
The Full Mentorship Library: Access to our complete archive of reports and strategies.
⚖️ Tier 2: Balanced Approach
This is where I invest most of my own money:
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