A covered call screener filters the options market to find stocks and strikes offering the best premium income relative to the risk. The best screeners rank by annualized premium yield, filter by delta range (0.15-0.35), require minimum open interest for liquidity, and exclude earnings dates within the option's lifespan.

Key Metrics to Screen For

1. Annualized Premium Yield

This is the single most important number. It tells you what percentage return you'd earn if you could sell the same call repeatedly for a year.

Formula: (Premium / Stock Price) × (365 / DTE) × 100

Example: $2.50 premium on a $100 stock with 30 DTE = (2.50/100) × (365/30) × 100 = 30.4% annualized

Screen for yields between 15-40%. Below 15% isn't worth the hassle. Above 40% usually means the stock is highly volatile or has earnings coming up.

2. Delta

Delta approximates the probability of the option expiring in the money. For covered calls:

  • 0.15-0.20 delta — Conservative. ~80-85% chance of keeping your shares. Lower premium.
  • 0.25-0.30 delta — Balanced. ~70-75% chance of keeping shares. Moderate premium.
  • 0.35-0.45 delta — Aggressive. ~55-65% chance of keeping shares. Higher premium but shares get called away often.

    • Most systematic covered call sellers target the 0.20-0.30 delta range.

    3. Days to Expiration (DTE)

    Screen for 25-45 DTE. This window captures the steepest theta decay curve while giving you enough time premium to collect meaningful income. Shorter than 20 DTE has thin premiums. Longer than 50 DTE ties up your capital and has slower theta decay.

    4. Open Interest and Volume

    Minimum open interest of 100 contracts and daily volume of 50+ ensures tight bid-ask spreads. Illiquid options will cost you 5-15% of the premium just on the spread.

    5. Earnings Date Filter

    Exclude any stock with earnings within your option's expiration window. Post-earnings IV crush destroys the premium you were counting on, and the stock gap risk can be enormous.

    Building a Screener From Scratch

    If you're using a platform like thinkorswim or Power E*TRADE:

  • Start with a stock universe (S&P 500 components, for example)
  • Filter to stocks you'd want to own at current prices
  • Pull the options chain for the nearest monthly expiration 25-45 DTE
  • Calculate annualized premium yield for the 0.20-0.30 delta calls
  • Rank by yield, highest first
  • Eliminate any with earnings before expiration
  • Eliminate any with open interest below 100

    • What a Good Screener Result Looks Like

    | Stock | Price | Strike | DTE | Premium | Annual Yield | Delta | OI | AMD$155$16532$3.8028.0%0.284,200 ABBV$175$182.532$2.9519.2%0.251,800 | F | $11 | $12 | 32 | $0.32 | 33.2% | 0.30 | 8,500 |

    AMD and ABBV offer solid yields with reasonable deltas and deep liquidity. F has high yield but the low stock price means small dollar amounts per contract.

    Common Screener Mistakes

    Chasing the highest yield. A stock showing 80% annualized yield is screaming that the market expects massive price movement. That premium exists because the risk is enormous.

    Ignoring the underlying stock quality. Screening only by premium yield without considering whether you'd want to own the stock for months is a recipe for bagholding.

    Not accounting for dividends. Ex-dividend dates increase early assignment risk on in-the-money calls. Screen for ex-dates and adjust your strategy accordingly.

    OptionsPilot's Built-In Screener

    OptionsPilot's covered call finder scans your watchlist and portfolio holdings automatically, ranking every available strike by annualized yield with filters for delta, DTE, and liquidity. It highlights which trades meet your income targets and flags any that have earnings or ex-dividend dates before expiration — so you can go from screening to execution in seconds rather than building spreadsheets.