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When executing our cash-secured put trades in bear, volatile or uncertain market conditions, it is reasonable to structure our trades with lower breakeven price points. This will come at the expense of lower initial time-value returns. It is imperative that we identify our initial time-value return goal range prior to establishing such trades.  What is the minimum acceptable return for the greatest amount of downside protection? In this article, a real-life example with NVIDIA Corp. (Nasdaq: NVDA) will be analyzed.

NVDA put option-chain on 7/11/2025 (8/15/2025 expiration)

• The OTM $160.00 put has a bid price of $5.25 (yellow row)
• The much deeper OTM $150.00 put has a bid price of $2.56 (brown row)

NVDA put calculations on 7/11/20265 using the BCI Trade Management Calculator (TMC)

• This is a 37-day trade, if taken through expiration Friday (red oval)
• The $150.00 deep OTM put strike has a breakeven price point of $147.44 (red arrow)
• The $150.00 strike has an initial time-value return of 1.74%, 17.13% annualized (brown cells)
• The $150.00 put offers 10% protection to the BE (purple cell)
• The $160.00 OTM put has a breakeven price point of $149.75 (blue arrow)
• The $160.00 strike has an initial time-value return of 3.51%, 34.58% annualized (pink cells)
• The $160.00 put offers 8.66% protection to the BE (green cell)

Discussion

When establishing defensive cash-secured put trades, monitoring the breakeven price points are instructive. The lower the better as it relates to insurance against share price decline. The lower the breakeven price point, the lower the time-value returns. There’s a tradeoff. We must establish our initial time-value return goal range prior to crafting our trades and then locate the lowest BE price point that meets our pre-stated goals. Once our trades are entered, we immediately prepare for potential exit strategy opportunities.

EXPECTED PRICE MOVEMENT CALCULATOR

The Expected Price Movement Calculator is designed to generate an approximate projected trading range for the underlying security, specific for selected contract expiration dates. The at-the-money implied volatility (IV) of the stock or ETF (exchange-traded fund) is used to achieve this valuable information.

Inherent in the spreadsheet is a conversion formula that recalibrates the annualized IV stat into one specific for the contract being traded. Easily accessed option-chain data is entered into the white cells at the top of the spreadsheet and calculations will appear in the yellow cells below.

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Free E-book on covered call writing

Use in conjunction with our Beginners Corner free video series on covered call writing (Free training link above)

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1. BCI Educational Webinar #9

Thursday January 15, 2026

8 PM ET – 9:30 PM ET

Watch an intro video overview of the webinar.

Reserve a seat and register now by clicking here.

2. Long Island Stock Investors Meetup Group: Part I

Thursday February 12, 2026

7:30 PM ET – 9:00 PM ET

Topic, description and registration information to follow.

3. Las Vegas Money Show

February 23 – 25, 2026

The Collar Strategy: Covered Call Writing with Protective Puts

Protecting covered call trades from catastrophic share loss 

This is the strategy Bernie Madoff pretended to use. He called it the split strike conversion strategy, but it was simply a collar. The covered call sets a ceiling on the trade and the protective put guarantees a floor on the trade

Topics discussed

• What is the collar strategy?
• Uses for the collar
• Entering a collar trade
• Option basics for calls
• Option basics for puts
• Real-life example with NVDA
• What is an option-chain?
• Real-life example using the BCI Trade Management Calculator (TMC)
• Strategy pros & cons
• Educational products & discount coupon
• Q&A

Time, date & registration link to follow.

4. Long Island Stock Investors Meetup Group: Part II

Thursday March12, 2026

7:30 PM ET – 9:00 PM ET

Topic, description and registration information to follow.

5. Hollywood Florida Money Show

The Put-Call-Put (PCP) or Wheel Strategy

Using Both Covered Call Writing and Put-Selling to Generate Monthly Cash Flow

Selling stock options is a proven way to lower our cost-basis and beat the market on a consistent basis. Two such low-risk strategies are covered call writing and selling cash-secured puts. This presentation will detail how to incorporate both strategies into one multi-tiered option-selling strategy where we either generate cash-flow or buy a stock at a discount. I refer to this as the Put-Call-Put (PCP) Strategy, also referred to as the wheel strategy.

The basics and pros and cons of low-risk option-selling strategies will be discussed as well as an analysis of a real-life example and introduction into the BCI Trade Management Calculator (TMC). This seminar is appropriate for those who look to generate modest, but consistent, returns which will enable us to potentially beat the market on a consistent basis while focusing on capital preservation.

More details to follow.