Strike Price Filter: Control the Stocks You Screen
Filter options by strike price range. Skip $1,000 stocks if your account can't secure them, or focus on $50–$200 names for the cleanest wheel trades.
What the Strike Price filter does
This filter restricts the strike price of the contracts shown. It's the single fastest way to make sure every trade in the table is one your account can actually take.
A $1,000-strike put requires $100,000 of cash to secure. A $30-strike put requires $3,000. Same screener, very different bucket.
Where to find it
The filter is exposed as Min Price and Max Price sliders, scaled exponentially from $0 to $1,000. The lower range is fine-grained because most wheel-friendly stocks live between $20 and $200.
How to use it for your account size
A simple sizing rule: you should be willing to put 5–10% of your account into a single CSP.
| Account size | Max strike (10% rule) | Recommended slider |
|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | $50 | $5 – $50 |
| $25,000 | $250 | $5 – $250 |
| $100,000 | $1,000 | $5 – $500 |
| $500,000+ | uncapped | $5 – $1,000 |
The default minimum is $5 so you never see penny-stock garbage that destroys liquidity.
Why a minimum matters
Sub-$5 stocks are excluded by default for good reasons:
- Bid-ask spreads are huge (often 50%+ of premium).
- Implied volatility is wild and often signals real distress.
- Assignment can leave you with shares of a sub-$1 ticker post-news.
If you intentionally trade sub-$5 names, you can lower the floor — but expect the Liquidity Cleanup toggle to remove most rows.
Practical recipes
Recipe — small account ($10K) wheel:
- Min Price: $5
- Max Price: $80
- DTE: 20–35
- Yield: ≥ 1%
Recipe — large account dividend-replacement wheel:
- Min Price: $50
- Max Price: $300
- Delta: -0.18 to -0.10
- Market Cap: ≥ $25B (filter via Large Cap preset)
Common mistakes
1. Confusing Strike Price with Premium. Strike is the price at which you'd buy/sell the stock. Premium is what you collect. Both have separate filters.
2. Setting Max too low and seeing nothing. If you cap strike at $20, you'll miss most wheel-quality names. Sizing down via fewer contracts is usually better than capping strike too aggressively.
Where to go next
- Set Premium minimum to require dollar credit.
- Use Market Cap filter to filter by company size, not strike.
- Try the CSP Cash Calculator for sizing math.
Frequently Asked Questions
What strike price range works best for small options accounts?
For accounts under $25K, set Max Strike to about $50–$80. That keeps each cash-secured put under $8,000 of capital so you can hold at least 3 positions for diversification.
Why is the strike slider exponential?
Most optionable stocks trade between $10 and $200, so the slider gives fine resolution in that range and lets the long tail to $1,000 stay accessible without dominating the slider.