CSP Cash Calculator
How much cash gets locked up when you sell a put.
Your numbers
The put strike you plan to sell.
Each contract covers 100 shares.
The quoted option price, e.g. 1.25 — not the dollar total.
Results
- Cash required
- $10,000.00
- Net of premium
- $9,750.00
- Premium credited
- $250.00
How it works
Selling a cash-secured put obliges you to buy 100 shares per contract at the strike, so your broker reserves the full purchase price: strike × 100 × contracts. The premium lands in your account immediately, which means the cash genuinely at risk is a little lower than the gross figure. Most brokers reduce the hold by the credit received, and Wheel Income's screener uses that same net convention when it ranks candidates — so both numbers are shown here and the net one is what to compare yields against.
gross = strike × 100 × contracts · net = gross − (premium × 100 × contracts)
Worked example
Selling two 50-strike puts at 1.25 reserves 50 × 100 × 2 = $10,000. You collect 1.25 × 100 × 2 = $250 up front, so $9,750 is genuinely at risk.
Common questions
Why does my broker hold a different amount?
Margin accounts often require less than the full cash amount, and portfolio-margin accounts can require far less. This calculator gives the cash-secured requirement, which is the conservative case and the one the wheel assumes.
What happens to the cash if I am assigned?
It buys the shares. The hold is released and replaced by 100 shares per contract at your strike, which is the point in the wheel where you start selling covered calls.
Can I sell puts without the cash?
Only on margin, where the position is a naked put rather than a cash-secured one. That carries materially different risk and is outside what the wheel strategy describes.
Other wheel calculators
- Premium Yield CalculatorTurn a premium into a yield you can compare across strikes and expirations.
- Assignment Probability CalculatorRead delta as a rough odds of being assigned.
- IV Rank CalculatorFind out where today's implied volatility sits in its yearly range.
- Theta Decay CalculatorSee what time decay is worth to you per day.
- Wheel Capital CalculatorHow much capital it takes to run the wheel on a given stock.
- Covered Call Max Profit CalculatorWhat a covered call makes if the shares get called away.
- Options Liquidity CheckerCheck whether a contract is actually tradable before you sell it.
- Wheel Position Size CalculatorHow many contracts fit inside your risk budget.
- Wheel Expectancy CalculatorWhat one wheel cycle is worth on average, given your own numbers.
Stop doing this by hand
Wheel Income screens live option chains for cash-secured puts and covered calls, then tracks every cycle from assignment through called away.
Try the screenerFor information and educational purposes only. Not investment advice. Options carry risk, including loss of the entire position.