How to Use the Barchart Covered Call Screener to Find High-Yield Trades

The Short Answer: What the Barchart Screener Does

The Barchart covered call screener at barchart.com/options/covered-calls lets you filter thousands of stock-and-option combinations in seconds. You set your criteria — minimum yield, days to expiration, moneyness — and it spits out a ranked list of trades sorted by annualized return. That makes it one of the fastest free tools available for retail covered-call sellers in the US and Canada.

The screener pulls live options data and calculates two return figures for every row: the static return (premium collected divided by the stock cost, assuming the stock stays flat) and the if-called return (total profit if the stock gets called away at the strike). Both numbers are annualized so you can compare a 14-day trade to a 45-day trade on the same scale.

Setting Up the Screener: The Five Filters That Matter

When you open the Barchart covered call screener, you will see a toolbar of filter fields across the top. Here are the five you should configure before you look at a single result.

**1. Expiration Range.** Set this to 20–45 days to expiration (DTE). This window captures the steepest part of theta decay, where time value erodes fastest. Going shorter than 20 DTE compresses your premium; going longer than 60 DTE ties up capital too long for most income strategies.

**2. Moneyness.** Choose Out-of-the-Money (OTM) if you want to keep upside on the stock. Choose In-the-Money (ITM) if you want maximum downside cushion and are comfortable capping gains. Most income-focused traders start with OTM strikes between 2% and 8% above the current stock price.

**3. Minimum Static Return.** Set a floor here — something like 1.5% to 3% for a monthly cycle. Anything above 5% per month on a large-cap stock is almost always a warning sign, not a gift. High implied volatility means the market expects a big move, and that move can go against you.

**4. Minimum Open Interest.** Set this to at least 500 contracts. Low open interest means wide bid-ask spreads, which quietly eat your premium when you enter and exit. The Options Industry Council (OIC) specifically flags liquidity as a primary execution risk for retail options traders.

**5. Stock Price Floor.** Set a minimum stock price of $10 or higher. Penny stocks and low-float names show up with eye-popping yields, but they carry assignment, liquidity, and volatility risks that are not appropriate for a covered-call income strategy.

A Real Worked Example Using AAPL

Let us walk through a concrete trade so the numbers are clear.

Assume Apple (AAPL) is trading at $213.50. The screener surfaces the following option:

- Strike: $220 call - Expiration: 35 days out - Bid premium: $2.85 per share ($285 per contract) - Open interest: 18,400 contracts - Implied volatility: 24%

**Static return calculation:** You collect $2.85 on a $213.50 stock. That is 1.33% over 35 days. Annualized: (1.33% ÷ 35) × 365 = roughly 13.9% annualized static return. The screener does this math for you automatically.

**If-called return calculation:** If AAPL closes above $220 at expiration, your shares get called away at $220. Your profit is the $6.50 gain on the stock ($220 − $213.50) plus the $2.85 premium = $9.35 per share. On a $213.50 cost basis that is 4.38% over 35 days, or about 45.7% annualized.

**What this trade actually means:** You are agreeing to sell AAPL at $220 no matter how high it goes. If AAPL jumps to $235 on an earnings beat, you still sell at $220 and miss $15 of upside. Your break-even on the downside is $213.50 − $2.85 = $210.65. Below that price, you are losing money on the position net of premium.

This is a reasonable trade for someone who already owns AAPL and is comfortable selling it at $220. It is not a good trade for someone who thinks AAPL is about to run hard.

How to Read the Screener's Output Columns Without Getting Confused

The Barchart results table has more columns than most traders use. Here is what each key column actually tells you.

**% OTM:** How far the strike is above the current stock price. A 3% OTM strike on a $100 stock is a $103 strike. Higher OTM means more room for the stock to run before you get called away, but less premium collected.

**Bid:** Always use the bid price, not the mid or ask, when estimating your actual fill. In a liquid market you may get filled at the mid, but the bid is your conservative floor. FINRA rules require brokers to seek best execution, but in options markets the bid-ask spread is real and it comes out of your pocket.

**IV (Implied Volatility):** This is the market's forecast of how much the stock will move. Higher IV means higher premium, but it also means the market expects turbulence. Do not chase high IV without understanding why it is elevated — earnings announcements, product launches, and macro events all spike IV temporarily.

**Delta:** A delta of 0.25 on your short call means the option has roughly a 25% chance of expiring in the money (a simplified but useful approximation). Lower delta = lower probability of assignment = less premium. Most income traders target deltas between 0.20 and 0.35 for OTM covered calls.

**Volume vs. Open Interest:** Volume is today's activity. Open interest is total outstanding contracts. You want both to be healthy. A contract with 10,000 open interest but only 5 contracts traded today may have a stale bid-ask spread.

The Risks You Need to See Before You Place a Trade

High yield on the screener is not free money. Here is where traders get hurt.

**Earnings risk.** The screener does not automatically flag upcoming earnings dates. If a company reports earnings inside your expiration window, implied volatility will spike before the announcement and collapse after it — a phenomenon called IV crush. Your premium looks great going in, but the stock can gap down 10% or 15% on a bad report and your $2.85 in premium does not cover that loss. Always check the earnings calendar before selling a covered call.

**Assignment and tax consequences.** If your call goes in the money and you get assigned, your shares are sold at the strike price. In the US, the IRS treats this as a stock sale in the tax year it occurs. If you have held the shares less than a year, the gain is short-term and taxed as ordinary income. The IRS also has specific rules around qualified covered calls that can affect the holding period of your underlying shares — see IRS Publication 550 for details. Canadian investors should review CRA guidance on options income, as the CRA may treat premium received as either capital gains or business income depending on your trading frequency.

**Opportunity cost.** Selling a covered call caps your upside. If you own 100 shares of NVDA and sell a $130 call for $3.00, and NVDA runs to $155, you sell at $130 plus keep the $3.00 — but you missed $25 of gains. This is not a loss in the accounting sense, but it is a real economic cost.

**Liquidity risk on exit.** If you want to close the trade early — buying back the call before expiration — you need a liquid market. Wide bid-ask spreads on thinly traded options can cost you 20% to 30% of the premium just to exit. Stick to names with open interest above 500 contracts, as noted earlier.

A Simple Workflow to Go From Screener to Trade in Under 15 Minutes

Once your filters are set, here is a repeatable process that keeps you disciplined.

**Step 1 — Run the screener with your five filters.** Sort by static return descending. Look at the top 20 results.

**Step 2 — Kill anything with an earnings date inside the expiration window.** Check a free earnings calendar (Barchart has one built in). Remove those rows immediately.

**Step 3 — Check the chart.** You are not doing deep fundamental analysis here. You are just asking: is this stock in a clear downtrend? If yes, skip it. A covered call does not protect you from a stock that is falling hard.

**Step 4 — Confirm you already own the stock or are willing to buy it.** The covered call screener assumes you own 100 shares per contract. If you are buying the stock to write the call against it, make sure the combined position (stock purchase plus short call) still makes sense at current prices.

**Step 5 — Check the bid-ask spread on the option.** If the spread is wider than 10% of the mid price, the liquidity is poor. Move on.

**Step 6 — Place a limit order at the mid price.** Do not hit the bid. Start at the mid and work down only if you do not get filled after a few minutes. On liquid names like AAPL, MSFT, or SPY, you will almost always get filled at or near the mid.

This workflow takes 10 to 15 minutes once you have done it a few times. The screener handles the heavy lifting; your job is the sanity checks.

What the Screener Cannot Do for You

The Barchart screener is a filter, not a strategy. It finds candidates; it does not tell you whether a stock is a good long-term hold, whether management is trustworthy, or whether the sector is about to rotate out of favor. It also does not account for your personal tax situation, your account type (taxable vs. IRA vs. TFSA in Canada), or your overall portfolio concentration.

The SEC requires brokers to ensure that options strategies are appropriate for each customer's financial situation and investment objectives — a process called suitability review. If you are new to covered calls, your broker may require you to complete an options agreement before you can trade. The OIC offers free education at optionseducation.org that covers the mechanics of covered calls in detail.

Use the screener as your starting point, not your ending point. The best covered-call traders combine a mechanical screen with a short checklist of qualitative filters — earnings dates, sector trends, and position sizing — before they commit capital.

Is the Barchart covered call screener free to use?

Yes, the basic covered call screener on Barchart is free with a standard account. A Barchart Premier subscription unlocks additional filters, real-time data, and the ability to save custom screener views. For most retail covered-call traders, the free version provides enough data to find and evaluate trades.

What is a good static return to look for in the screener?

A static return of 1% to 3% per monthly cycle (roughly 30 days) is a realistic target on large-cap, liquid stocks. Returns above 4% to 5% per month on a blue-chip name almost always reflect elevated implied volatility tied to an upcoming event like earnings. Chasing those numbers without understanding the risk is one of the most common mistakes new covered-call sellers make.

How do I avoid getting assigned early on a covered call?

Early assignment on a standard American-style equity option is most likely when the call is deep in the money and there is little time value left, especially around ex-dividend dates. To reduce the risk, sell calls with enough time value remaining that early exercise is not economically rational for the buyer. The OIC explains early assignment mechanics in detail in its free options education materials.

Does selling covered calls affect the tax treatment of my shares?

Yes, it can. In the US, the IRS has rules around qualified covered calls that can suspend the holding period of your underlying shares, potentially converting a long-term capital gain into a short-term gain. IRS Publication 550 covers these rules. Canadian investors should consult CRA guidance, as the CRA may classify options premium as business income rather than capital gains if trading is frequent.

Can I use the Barchart screener for ETFs like SPY or QQQ?

Yes, ETFs appear in the screener alongside individual stocks. SPY and QQQ are among the most liquid options markets in the world, with extremely tight bid-ask spreads and massive open interest. The trade-off is that ETF premiums are generally lower than individual stock premiums because ETFs carry less single-stock event risk.

What does the 'if-called return' column mean in the Barchart screener?

The if-called return shows your total annualized profit if the stock is called away at the strike price at expiration. It combines the premium you collected plus any capital gain between your stock cost basis and the strike price. This figure is always higher than the static return and represents the best-case outcome for the trade.