Best Covered Call Screeners That Show Earnings Date Warnings (And How to Use Them)

The Short Answer: Which Screeners Show Earnings Dates?

Several covered call screeners flag upcoming earnings dates directly in their results — the most widely used among retail traders are Barchart.com's covered call screener, Power Options, Market Chameleon, and the thinkorswim platform from TD Ameritrade/Schwab. Each one lets you filter or sort by days-to-earnings so you can skip any stock whose report falls before your option expires.

If you only remember one thing from this article, make it this: always check whether an earnings date lands inside your option's expiration window before you sell a covered call. Missing that check is one of the most common and most costly mistakes retail covered-call writers make.

Why Earnings Dates Are a Covered Call Writer's Biggest Blind Spot

When a company reports earnings, the stock can gap up or gap down by 5%, 10%, or more overnight. That creates two problems for covered call writers.

First, if the stock gaps way up, your shares get called away at the strike price you sold — and you miss all the upside above that strike. You collected maybe $1.50 in premium but gave up a $12 move. Second, if the stock gaps down hard, your covered call premium provides only a thin cushion. A $1.50 premium does not protect you much against a $15 drop.

There is also an implied volatility (IV) effect. Before earnings, options market makers inflate IV to price in the uncertainty of the report. That makes premiums look unusually fat and tempting. After the report — win or lose — IV collapses almost instantly. This is called IV crush. Traders who sell covered calls just before earnings are often chasing that inflated premium without fully accounting for the binary risk underneath it.

The Options Industry Council (OIC) specifically flags earnings announcements as a key event risk that options traders must monitor before entering any position.

How to Read an Earnings Warning in a Screener: A Real Example

Let's walk through a concrete example using Apple (AAPL).

Suppose it is early January and AAPL is trading at $189. You own 100 shares and you want to sell a covered call expiring in about 30 days — the February 21 expiration. You pull up Barchart's covered call screener and filter for AAPL. The screener shows a column labeled 'Earnings Date' and flags February 6 in red, meaning Apple's quarterly report falls inside your expiration window.

The February 21 $195 call is showing a bid of $2.85 — that looks attractive, roughly 1.5% in 30 days. But that premium is inflated because the market is pricing in earnings uncertainty. If Apple misses estimates and drops to $175, your $2.85 collected does not come close to covering the $14 loss on your shares. If Apple beats and jumps to $205, your shares get called away at $195 and you miss $10 of upside.

The smarter move flagged by the screener: either roll out to a March expiration that clears the earnings date, or skip writing the call entirely until after February 6. A March 21 $197 call might only offer $3.40 — slightly more premium in absolute terms but spread over 60 days — and it lets the earnings event pass before you are locked into a strike.

This is exactly the kind of decision an earnings-date column in a screener makes visible in seconds instead of requiring you to manually cross-reference an earnings calendar.

Screener-by-Screener Breakdown: What Each Tool Shows You

Barchart.com Covered Call Screener: Free tier available. Shows an 'Earnings Date' column in results. You can sort ascending to push the soonest earnings to the top and manually avoid them. Also shows IV percentile, which helps you spot when premium is inflated by pre-earnings IV.

Market Chameleon: Paid tiers unlock the most useful filters. Displays earnings date, IV rank, and historical earnings move size (the average percentage the stock has moved on past reports). That last number is critical — it tells you how big the gap risk actually is for a specific stock.

Power Options: Subscription-based. Built specifically for covered call and cash-secured put screening. Earnings date is a first-class filter — you can exclude any stock with earnings inside the expiration window with a single checkbox. Saves significant time for traders running larger portfolios.

thinkorswim (TD Ameritrade/Schwab): The platform's options chain view shows an earnings date indicator directly on the expiration row. When you are looking at the chain for NVDA and you see a small earnings icon next to the January 17 expiration, that is your warning. No separate screener needed if you are already trading inside thinkorswim.

Yahoo Finance and Robinhood: Both show earnings dates on individual stock pages, but neither offers a true multi-stock covered call screener with earnings filtering. You would have to check each holding manually — workable for a 3-stock portfolio, not practical for 15 or 20 positions.

What Are the Real Risks of Selling Into Earnings — Even Intentionally?

Some experienced traders do sell covered calls into earnings on purpose, trying to capture the IV crush. This is not a beginner strategy and the risks are real and asymmetric.

The upside cap problem: Your covered call caps your gain at the strike. If NVDA is at $480 and you sell the $490 call before earnings and NVDA reports a blowout quarter and jumps to $530, you collect your premium but your shares are called away at $490. You miss $40 per share of appreciation.

The downside exposure problem: The covered call does not protect you below your cost basis minus the premium collected. If NVDA drops from $480 to $420 on a weak report, a $6 premium collected does not change the fact that you are sitting on a $54 unrealized loss per share.

The assignment timing problem: FINRA and the OCC (Options Clearing Corporation) rules mean that if your call goes in-the-money before expiration, you can be assigned early — especially around ex-dividend dates that sometimes cluster near earnings. Early assignment means your shares leave your account before you planned.

The tax complication: The IRS has specific rules about how covered calls affect the holding period of your underlying shares. Under IRS Publication 550, selling a deep in-the-money call can suspend or even eliminate the long-term capital gains holding period on your shares. Canadian investors should check CRA guidance on option transactions, as similar rules apply under Canadian tax law. If you are near the one-year mark on shares you have held, selling a covered call into earnings — and potentially getting assigned — could cost you the preferential long-term rate. Talk to a tax professional before making that trade.

A Simple Pre-Trade Checklist Before You Sell Any Covered Call

Use this checklist every time, not just when you remember to.

1. Open your screener and confirm the earnings date for the stock. If the earnings date falls before your expiration, either choose a later expiration that clears the date or skip the trade.

2. Check the ex-dividend date. If the stock goes ex-dividend before expiration and your call is in-the-money, early assignment risk rises sharply. Screeners like Market Chameleon and Barchart show ex-dividend dates alongside earnings dates.

3. Look at IV rank or IV percentile. A reading above 50 means implied volatility is elevated relative to the past year. That can mean fat premiums — but it also means the market is pricing in a known risk event. Know which one is driving the number.

4. Check the historical earnings move. If a stock has averaged a plus-or-minus 8% move on the last four earnings reports, make sure your strike gives you enough buffer — or just wait until after the report.

5. Confirm your position size. The SEC and FINRA both emphasize that options are leveraged instruments. Even covered calls carry meaningful downside risk on the stock side. Never write calls on a position so large that a bad earnings gap would materially damage your overall portfolio.

Running this checklist takes about three minutes per position. The screeners listed above make steps one and two nearly instant. There is no good reason to skip it.

Which free covered call screener shows earnings dates?

Barchart.com offers a free covered call screener that includes an earnings date column in its results. You can sort by earnings date to quickly identify which positions have a report landing inside your expiration window. The free tier has some limitations on filter combinations, but the earnings date visibility is available without a paid subscription.

Is it ever okay to sell a covered call before earnings?

Experienced traders sometimes do this intentionally to capture elevated pre-earnings implied volatility, but it carries real asymmetric risk. If the stock gaps up sharply, your upside is capped at the strike; if it gaps down, your premium provides only a small cushion. Most retail covered-call writers are better served by waiting until after the earnings report to sell calls, when the stock price has reset and IV has normalized.

What is IV crush and why does it matter for covered call writers?

IV crush is the rapid drop in implied volatility that happens immediately after an earnings report is released. Before earnings, options premiums are inflated because the market is pricing in uncertainty about the report. Once the news is out, that uncertainty disappears and IV — along with option prices — collapses fast. Covered call writers who sell before earnings are collecting premium that partly reflects this inflated IV, but they are also taking on the full binary risk of the earnings outcome.

Can selling a covered call affect my long-term capital gains tax treatment?

Yes. Under IRS Publication 550, selling a qualified covered call can suspend the holding period on your underlying shares, which could affect whether your eventual gain qualifies for long-term capital gains rates. Canadian investors face similar rules under CRA guidance on option transactions. If you are close to the one-year holding mark on any position, consult a tax professional before selling a covered call, especially one that could result in assignment.

How far out should I set my expiration to avoid earnings?

A common rule of thumb is to choose an expiration at least one week after the expected earnings date — but the safest approach is to simply pick an expiration that falls entirely before the earnings date, or one that falls well after it. Most companies report on a predictable quarterly schedule, so checking a screener or an earnings calendar like those on Barchart or Market Chameleon takes only seconds and removes the guesswork.

Does thinkorswim show earnings dates on the options chain?

Yes. The thinkorswim platform from TD Ameritrade/Schwab displays an earnings date indicator directly on the options chain, typically shown as a small icon or flag next to the expiration row where the earnings date falls. This means you do not need a separate screener if you are already placing trades inside thinkorswim — the warning is built into the interface.