What Is ThetaHarvester? A Free Tool for Grading Covered Calls and CSPs
Why I Built ThetaHarvester
If you sell covered calls or cash-secured puts, you know the drill. You open your broker, stare at a chain of strikes, and try to eyeball the "right" one. Maybe you pick the one with the juiciest premium. Maybe you go with whatever delta feels safe.
The problem? Gut feeling doesn't scale. One bad strike selection can wipe out weeks of premium income. And without a repeatable framework, you can't improve over time because you don't know what you're measuring.
That's why I built ThetaHarvester — a free tool that grades your covered call and cash-secured put setups before you enter the trade.
How It Works
ThetaHarvester evaluates your setup across multiple dimensions and gives you a clear, actionable grade:
- Pick a ticker — Enter any optionable stock
- Select an expiration — Choose your target DTE
- Click a strike from the chain — See the full options chain with live data
- Get a grade and management plan — Instant feedback on your setup's quality
What Gets Graded
Every setup is scored on factors that matter for premium sellers:
- Delta positioning — Are you far enough OTM for your risk tolerance?
- Premium yield — Is the annualized return worth the risk?
- Liquidity — Is the bid-ask spread tight enough to get a fair fill?
- DTE sweet spot — Are you in the optimal time decay window?
- Earnings proximity — Are you accidentally selling through an earnings event?
The Grading System
Setups receive a letter grade from A+ (excellent risk/reward) down to F (avoid). Each grade comes with a specific management plan:
- Take-profit target — When to buy back for a win
- Stop-loss trigger — When to cut and reassess
- Roll guidance — Whether rolling makes sense at expiration
Why Mechanical Execution Wins
The best options sellers aren't the ones with the best "feel" for the market. They're the ones with rules they follow consistently. ThetaHarvester enforces that discipline by giving you objective feedback on every trade.
"The goal isn't to find the perfect trade. It's to avoid the bad ones and let the math work over hundreds of occurrences."
Guardrails
Pro users can customize their guardrails — the rules that determine what counts as an acceptable setup:
- Minimum OTM distance by DTE bucket
- Maximum concentration per position
- Earnings lockout windows
- Minimum open interest thresholds
- Maximum bid-ask spread tolerance
These guardrails turn ThetaHarvester from a grading tool into a personal trading system.
Try It Free
Visit tharvester.com to grade your next covered call or cash-secured put setup. No account required for basic grading — just pick a ticker, select a strike, and see your grade.