To sell one cash secured put, you need enough cash to buy 100 shares at the strike price. If you sell a $25 strike put, your broker holds $2,500. Sell a $150 strike put, and $15,000 is locked up. The capital requirement equals the strike price multiplied by 100, minus the premium you collect.

Capital Requirements for Popular Stocks

Here's what you actually need in your account for one contract at typical out-of-the-money strikes:

| Stock | Current Price | Strike (5% OTM) | Cash Required | Typical Premium | Net Capital | Ford (F)$12$11.50$1,150$35$1,115 SoFi (SOFI)$14$13$1,300$42$1,258 Palantir (PLTR)$26$25$2,500$78$2,422 AMD$165$157$15,700$320$15,380 Apple (AAPL)$195$185$18,500$275$18,225 NVIDIA (NVDA)$135$128$12,800$310$12,490 | SPY ETF | $530 | $520 | $52,000 | $580 | $51,420 |

Small Account Strategies ($1,000-$5,000)

With a smaller account, focus on stocks priced under $25. You have plenty of solid choices:

  • Ford ($12): $1,100-$1,200 per contract
  • SoFi ($14): $1,300-$1,400 per contract
  • Riot Platforms ($10): $900-$1,000 per contract
  • Nokia ($4.50): $400-$450 per contract

    • The premiums on cheap stocks are smaller in dollar terms, but the percentage returns can be competitive. Selling a $13 put on SoFi for $0.42 returns 3.2% in a month — that's over 38% annualized.

    Medium Account Strategies ($5,000-$25,000)

    This is the sweet spot. You can trade mid-cap stocks and popular tech names with better liquidity and tighter spreads:

  • Palantir ($26): ~$2,500 per contract
  • Coinbase ($220): ~$21,000 per contract
  • NVIDIA ($135): ~$12,800 per contract

    • With $15,000, you could sell puts on three different $50 stocks simultaneously, diversifying your risk across sectors.

    Large Account Strategies ($25,000+)

    Above $25,000, the entire universe opens up. SPY puts require ~$52,000 but offer exceptional liquidity. High-priced stocks like Amazon and Google become accessible.

    The advantage of bigger accounts isn't just stock selection — it's diversification. Running five different cash secured puts across uncorrelated sectors is far safer than concentrating everything in one position.

    Don't Forget: Premium Reduces Your Requirement

    Your actual capital at risk is the strike price minus the premium collected. If you sell a $50 put and collect $2.00, you're really committing $4,800, not $5,000. Over multiple trades, those premiums add up and effectively lower your capital deployment.

    How Many Contracts Can You Sell?

    Divide your available cash by the capital per contract:

  • $10,000 account ÷ $2,500 per PLTR put = 4 contracts maximum
  • But selling 4 contracts on one stock is risky — better to sell 1-2 contracts across 2-3 different stocks

    • A good rule: never allocate more than 20-30% of your account to a single cash secured put position. That keeps any single assignment from wrecking your portfolio.

    Getting Started With Limited Capital

    Start with one contract on a stock you'd happily own. Collect a few months of premium. Reinvest that premium into your cash balance to gradually increase position sizes. OptionsPilot's strike finder lets you filter by price range, so you can quickly find puts that fit your account size.