Covered calls
The fifth sector, live since 2026-08-06: bots that own 100 shares and sell call options against them, collecting the premium. PAPER trading, forward data collection - and every price in this sector comes from Alpaca's free indicative feed (calculated quotes, not the paid exchange feed). That label applies to every number on this page.
cc-pfe-01 - PFE (covered call)
$3438.40 true two-leg equity as of 2026-09-09 (started $3400 on 2026-08-06). Holds 100 shares at spot $27.79 with $686.40 cash. Short 1 call: PFE261009C00029500 (strike $29.50, expires 2026-10-09, premium collected $25.00). Note: the fleet dashboard's number for this bot counts only the share leg; the equity here also subtracts what it would cost to buy the short call back - slightly lower, and more honest.
Sample progress
24 session(s) recorded, 2 call(s) written (verdict needs ≥5), 1 of 3 settlements toward the verdict trigger (or 2026-11-30, whichever first).
Protocol measurements so far
Median quoted spread on written calls: 36.0% vs the 13.8% the backtest studies assumed (pass bar: ≤17.2%). Contract selection: 2 by live delta, 0 by the %-OTM fallback - the backtests could only use the fallback, so this gap is one of the things the sample exists to measure.
What this bot is allowed to prove - and what it isn't
The rules for judging this bot were committed to git before it made a single decision, and they forbid the conclusion everyone wants: ninety days of one stock cannot prove covered calls "work," so the verdict doesn't ask. It asks three things: does the plumbing hold up (options expire and settle correctly, nothing breaks on a restart), does the bot get enough chances to act (at least 5 calls written), and do real costs match what our studies assumed (median live spread no worse than 1.25× the studies' number). Return versus just holding the shares is reported but never gating. If costs come in worse than assumed, the studies get flagged as optimistic and expansion stops - that's the deal.
What the studies actually found
Before this bot existed, covered calls and the wheel each ran a pre-registered backtest against simply buying and holding the same shares (Feb 2024 – Jul 2026, real fees, measured spreads, four stocks). Both passed 4 of 4 - but the honest reading is narrower than the scoreboard: not one stock won on both return and risk. In rallies the strategies kept you safer but gave up most of the upside; in declines they lost less but still lost. The wheel's famous cycle completed exactly three times in thirty months across four stocks. Decades of buy-write index data show the same pattern, and our measurements agree: option premium pays you to wait out a drawdown. It does not prevent one.
What a covered call is
You own 100 shares of a stock and sell (write) a call option against them, collecting the premium as income. If the stock stays below the strike price, you keep the premium and the shares, and repeat next month. If it rises above the strike, your shares get called away - you keep the premium but give up the upside beyond it. It's one of the more sensible options strategies available to regular investors, but it is not free money: you are selling your upside.
The capital math, stated plainly
One covered call requires 100 shares - this bot's Pfizer block plus buffer is $3,400 of paper capital, and it writes exactly one contract. That math is why the universe is cheap, liquid stocks and why the fleet starts at one bot: the strategy's live-capital path is the narrowest of any sector, and the survival-first rule applies here like everywhere else. Fancier structures (spreads, poor man's covered calls) stay parked until the simple version has earned its verdict.
Follow along
The dashboard shows the Options sector alongside the rest of the fleet; the news feed carries every verdict, whichever way it lands. Paper results are labeled PAPER, and nothing on this page is financial advice.