Read this first. Options are not a safer way to own a stock. A call bought for $2,000 can be worth nothing at expiry if the stock ends below the strike, and the leverage that makes a LEAP cheap works just as hard on the way down. Quotes here are delayed, midpoints between bid and ask; the price you would actually get can be worse. Educational research only, not investment advice.
Tonight’s calls
One call per company, 12 to 24 months out, with a delta between 0.75 and 0.85, so it moves roughly 75–85 cents for every dollar the stock moves. Most of its price is intrinsic value (how far the stock is above the strike); the rest is time premium, the part that melts away by expiry. The lower that share, the closer the call behaves to owning the shares.
| Company | Call | Cost vs 100 shares | Time premium | Breakeven | Liquidity | Filters |
|---|
The five filters
- Δ Delta 0.75–0.85. Deep in the money, so the price is mostly intrinsic value and the call tracks the stock closely.
- DTE 365+ days. 12 to 24 months to expiry. Time decay is slow in a LEAP’s first year and speeds up near the end.
- IV Volatility rank under 30. Options are cheaper when volatility is low, and less exposed to a later fall in volatility.
- Liq Open interest 500+ and a spread within 10%. LEAPS trade thinly. A wide gap between bid and ask is a cost paid on the way in and again on the way out.
- Trend Above the 200-day average. Calls work best when the stock is already in an established uptrend.
What can go wrong
A LEAP has an expiry date: the stock can be right in two years and the call still expire worthless if the move comes too late. A deep in-the-money call does not collect dividends. A Poor Man’s Covered Call caps the upside for each month a call is sold, and can be assigned early. Puts cost money every year in which nothing bad happens. And a company passing every filter here says only that the arithmetic and the option market line up tonight; it is not a forecast and not a recommendation.
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