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Sell puts outside the Expected Move

When you sell a put, you win if the stock stays above your strike. The Expected Move tells you how far the options market thinks the stock can fall or rise by expiration. If you pick a strike below that range, the market itself says the stock is not likely to get there. You collect the premium with a wider safety cushion. 

This scan finds those puts for you. You do not need to calculate the Expected Move or compare strikes by hand.

Note: the Expected Move is an estimate, not a guarantee. It is calculated from current options prices and it changes all the time as those prices change. A stock can still fall through your strike. Use this scan to find candidates, then check each one before you trade.

How to build the scan

  1. Pick the strategy. Open the Screener and choose the Naked PUT strategy from the strategy dropdown.

  2. Add the Expected Move filter. Click "Add Filters", search for "Expected Move", and click Distance Strike vs Expected Move. A filter turns green when it is added. Open Distance Strike vs Expected Move and set the preset to "Strikes outside EM". This keeps only puts whose strike is below the lower edge of the Expected Move range. (One filter is enough here: the strike filter already keeps the breakeven outside the range.)


    em-2.png


  3. Run the scan. The results show only puts that sit outside the Expected Move.


  4. Fine-tune the scan. In this example we sorted the results by Return (Annualized) and raised the Return filter to above 2%. We kept the rest at the default settings: Moneyness from -15% to 15%, an expiration date range of about one month, Bid Ask Spread below 50 cents, Return (Annualized) above 5% and Total Option Volume above 5,000. Change them to match your own plan.

How to read the results

Scroll the table to the right to see the new columns:

  • Expected Move: the expected move of the stock, in percent and as a price range.

  • Distance Strike vs Expected Move: how far the strike is from each edge of the range, as a percentage of the stock price. A negative number means the strike is below that edge.


Notes about analyzing the results

  • Check the premium. A strike far outside the Expected Move is safer but pays less. Use the Return columns to see whether the premium is worth it.

  • Look at the Distance numbers. The more negative the Lower value, the bigger the cushion. In the NVDA example from the Expected Move article, the strike is only 1.04% below the edge, so the cushion is thin. Pick trades with a more negative Lower value if you want a bigger cushion.

  • Click a symbol in the results to open the details page and look at the trade in full before you decide.

  • The Expected Move changes with each expiration date. A longer expiration has a wider range, so the strike has to be lower to stay outside it.

Save the scan

When you are happy with the setup, click "Save" at the top, give the scan a name such as "Puts outside Expected Move", and run it again whenever you want new candidates.

Summary

We used the Naked PUT strategy with the Distance Strike vs Expected Move filter set to "Strikes outside EM". The scan returns puts where the market itself says the stock is unlikely to reach your strike by expiration. Sort by premium and return, then check the details of each trade before you place it.

Read more:

Expected Move - KB

Sell puts 3 standard deviations under current price - KB

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