Poor man’s covered call (PMCC)

Using a deep in-the-money LEAPS call as a stock substitute and selling short-dated calls against it — a covered call for less capital.

A poor man's covered call replaces the 100 shares of a normal covered call with a deep in the money long call, usually a LEAPS with six months to two years until expiry and a delta around 0.80. You then sell a shorter dated out of the money call against it, collecting premium every few weeks. The long call behaves like a cheaper stand in for the stock, so you tie up far less capital while still profiting from time decay on the short leg.

Say a stock trades at 100. Instead of buying shares for 10,000, you buy a one year call at the 80 strike for about 2,500 and sell a 30 day 105 call for 150 in premium. If the stock drifts sideways or rises slowly, the short call expires worthless and you keep rolling it, chipping away at the cost of your long call.

The classic mistake is letting your long strike sit above the strike you sell, which can turn a sharp rally into a loss when the short call gets assigned and your long leg cannot cover it. Always keep the long strike well below the short strike, and watch that the premium you collect exceeds the theta bleeding out of your LEAPS.

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Educational use only. Quotes are delayed ~15 minutes and nothing here is financial advice. Options trading involves substantial risk of loss.