Sell a cash-secured put on a stock you would be comfortable owning. If you are assigned, sell a covered call against the shares. Collect premium in both directions and repeat.

You can find that description in a hundred places for free. What you cannot find is a working education in the questions the description skips: which stocks actually suit the strategy and which only look like they do, how to choose a strike when volatility is high versus when it is compressed, what to do in the month a position drops 18% and you are holding shares below your basis, and how to size five to ten of these positions so that one bad one does not undo the others.

That is what The Income Foundation is for. It is an educational service built around a model Wheel portfolio, and every position in it exists to teach something.

I have been trading options professionally for more than 24 years, and was incredibly fortunate early on in my career to learn side by side with one of the original CBOE market makers, and the Wheel is still the strategy I would hand to someone who wants income from options without turning trading into a second job. It is also the strategy I watch more people quit than any other.

Not because it fails. Because they were never taught the part that matters.

The Wheel is the most forgiving income strategy I know, but forgiving is not the same as simple. The mechanics take an afternoon. The judgment takes cycles, and the fastest way to build it is to watch a disciplined process run in live market conditions with the reasoning shown.

The model portfolio is the classroom. The Income Foundation runs a model portfolio of 5 to 10 quality stocks and ETFs. It is a teaching portfolio, not an account you copy. Every position is there because it illustrates a decision worth understanding: why that name passed the screen, why that strike at that expiration, what the expected return on capital looks like, and where the plan goes if the stock moves against us. Cost basis, premium collected, and current strikes are tracked as they change, so you see the full arc of each position rather than a snapshot.

Weekly research, done in real market conditions. Each week I run the screens that feed the portfolio: liquidity and open interest, implied volatility relative to its own history, earnings timing, sector exposure, and the price-to-strike math that determines whether a put is worth selling at all. You see the candidates that made it through, the ones that did not, and why. Over time you stop needing my list, because you understand how it was built.

Position updates with the reasoning attached. When a position is opened, rolled, assigned, or closed, you get the exact strike, expiration, and premium by email and on the web, along with a plain explanation of the decision. The alert is the least important part. The explanation is the lesson.

Weekly portfolio commentary. A concise walk through what is working, what is not, which positions are approaching a decision point, and what the current volatility environment means for the next round of trades. Written through the lens of probability and income, never prediction.

Articles written only for this service. Deeper pieces that do not appear anywhere else on The Option Premium: position sizing and capital allocation across the portfolio, handling earnings inside the Wheel, selling calls below your basis, managing assignment in a drawdown, and how the strategy behaves across different market regimes. These are the long-form answers to the questions the weekly updates raise.

Volatility and market context. Implied volatility, sector rotation, and the macro calendar shape which trades get placed and which get skipped. I explain that context each week so the judgment becomes yours.

Member webinars. Written updates can only carry so much. In the webinars I walk through the portfolio live: which positions are at a decision point, how I am thinking about a roll or an assignment, what the current volatility environment means for the next round of puts, and whatever questions members bring. Sessions are recorded, so if you cannot attend, the teaching is still there when you have time for it.

The members' forum. The Wheel is a lonely strategy to run by yourself, especially in the month a position goes against you and every instinct says to do something clever. The forum is where members ask what I would do with a position on their own stock, compare notes on strike selection, and work through assignments together. I am in there answering, and so are people a few cycles ahead of you. Most of what I write for the service starts as a question someone asked there.

It is not a way to make money in every market. When stocks fall hard, the Wheel puts you in shares, and premium income becomes a way to lower your basis while you wait. That is how the strategy works, and the education here spends more time on those months than on the easy ones, because those are the months that decide whether people stick with it.

It is not a low-capital strategy. Running the Wheel on a single $60 stock means being ready to buy 100 shares, or $6,000 in cash-secured capital, before selling the first put. A portfolio of 5 to 10 names scales from there. If your account cannot support a few positions at full size, start with the free Sunday newsletter and build toward this.

It is not investment advice, and the portfolio is not a recommendation. It is a model, managed in the open, so you can learn to build your own.

Traders who understand the Wheel in theory and want to learn the judgment that makes it work in practice. People who have tried it, taken an assignment they did not know how to handle, and want to see what disciplined management looks like over a full cycle. Investors who already hold quality stocks and want a repeatable process for putting them to work without watching screens all day.

If you want trade ideas without the education attached, or a strategy that promises income regardless of what the market does, this is not the right fit, and I would rather say that here than after you subscribe.

$9 per month, or annual access at a discount. Your rate is locked for as long as you remain a member. I have never raised the price on an existing subscriber and I do not intend to start.

Every position in the model portfolio, including the ones that go against us, is documented for members from entry to exit. If you want to see what that looks like before committing, the free Sunday newsletter covers the Wheel regularly and links to public write-ups.

The Option Premium is an educational publication. Nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Options involve risk and are not suitable for every investor. Do your own research before placing any trade.