The Option Premium

Whether you're looking to capitalize on market volatility, hedge your portfolio, or explore new trading strategies, we provide comprehensive research, trade ideas, portfolios, and education in an effort to empower options traders of all levels.

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Poor Man’s Covered Calls: The Definitive Guide to Smarter Options Income

Poor Man’s Covered Calls (PMCCs) use LEAPS to replace expensive stock positions, reducing capital needs by 65 to 85%. Learn how this strategy generates consistent income with flexibility and lower risk.

Best Stocks for Credit Spreads: A 7-Step Selection Framework

How to find the best stocks for credit spreads using liquidity, IV rank, IV percentile, and expected move. A step-by-step framework for consistent profits.

Andrew Crowder

Earnings Season Options Trade: A Step-by-Step Guide

Learn Andy Crowder's 5-step earnings options framework: liquidity, IV rank, expected move, historical behavior, and iron condor setup with real Visa trade numbers.

How to Profit with The Wheel Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Consistent Income Using a Conservative Options Strategy

Learn how The Wheel Strategy can boost your portfolio with cash-secured puts and covered calls for steady income and lowered risk.

Options Traders' Must-Have: Mastering the Expected Move

Learn how to calculate the expected move using implied volatility, place strikes outside the range, and build high-probability credit spreads with real SPY examples.

Law of Large Numbers in Options Trading: Your Statistical Edge

How the Law of Large Numbers powers probability-based options trading with 70-85% win rates. The math, the strategy, and a real SPY bear call spread example.

Most Recent Posts, Alerts, Updates

You've Been Doing Covered Calls Wrong. Here's the Smarter Way to Think About Them.

A covered call and a short put at the same strike have identical risk profiles. Same P&L at every price. Same Greeks. The only difference: $15,000 in capital vs. $3,000. The risk equivalence that changes how professionals deploy capital.

Andrew Crowder

IV Rank vs. IV Percentile: Why Every Premium Seller Needs Both (and Which One I Trust More)

IV Rank uses 2 data points. IV Percentile uses 252. A single spike can blind IVR for months while IVP stays accurate. Learn the formulas, the spike distortion problem, and how to use both together with real examples.

Andrew Crowder

The Jade Lizard: How to Sell Premium With No Upside Risk

A jade lizard combines a short put with a bear call spread. When the total credit exceeds the call spread width, upside risk is zero. 20-30% more premium than a cash-secured put with the same downside exposure. Setup, construction, and management.

Andrew Crowder

What Is a Strike Price, and How Do You Choose One?

The strike price is the number every options investor sees first and understands last. Here is what it actually means, how it connects to probability, and why choosing one is a decision, not a guess.

Andrew Crowder

Premium

🚨 The Implied Perspective Trade Alert: April 17, 2026

Closing Trade

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🚨 Wealth Without Shares Trade Alert: April 17, 2026

All Weather Portfolio

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🚨 The Income Foundation Trade Alert: April 16, 2026

Trade Alert - Locking in Profits

Why Boredom Is the Premium Seller's Greatest Asset

The best investors are comfortable being bored. The law of large numbers requires 200-500 trades to manifest. Sequence risk is what destroys traders before the math catches up. Five structural protections that let the edge work.

Andrew Crowder

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🚨 The Implied Perspective Trade Alert: April 15, 2026

Closing Trade

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🚨 Wealth Without Shares Trade Alert: April 14, 2026

Small Dogs Portfolio

What Is Beta Weighting? The Tool That Turns a Scattered Options Portfolio Into a Single, Readable Number

Beta weighting translates every position into SPY-equivalent deltas so you can see your total market exposure as a single number. The formula, a 7-position example, portfolio-level Greeks, and why premium sellers need this tool.

Andrew Crowder

Premium