Options Liquidity Checker
Check whether a contract is actually tradable before you sell it.
Your numbers
Contracts traded so far today.
Contracts currently outstanding.
Add bid and ask to include the spread in the score.
Add bid and ask to include the spread in the score.
Results
- Liquidity
- Acceptable
- Bid-ask spread
- 4.88%
How it works
An option with a great yield is worth nothing if you cannot get filled at a fair price, and illiquid contracts punish you twice — once entering and again when you want out early. Open interest shows how many contracts exist, volume shows whether anyone is trading them today, and the bid-ask spread shows what that thinness costs you in cash. This tool grades open interest at 500 and 100, volume at 100 and 20, and the spread at 2% and 5% of mid, then reports whichever of the three is worst. Those thresholds are deliberately visible: any tool that gives you a liquidity score without telling you what is behind it is asking for more trust than it has earned.
spread = (ask − bid) ÷ midpoint · verdict = worst of the open interest, volume and spread tiers
Worked example
A contract with 250 volume, 900 open interest, and a 1.00/1.05 market has a spread of 0.05 ÷ 1.025 = 4.9%. Depth is good, but the spread only rates acceptable, so the contract is rated acceptable.
Common questions
Which matters more, volume or open interest?
Open interest, for the wheel. It tells you a real market exists in that contract. Volume can be zero on a perfectly tradable contract simply because nobody has traded it yet today.
How wide a spread is too wide?
Above roughly 5% of the midpoint you are giving up a meaningful slice of your premium just to enter and exit. On thin contracts, always work a limit order at the mid rather than taking the bid.
Do these thresholds apply to every underlying?
They are general-purpose. Large-cap weeklies clear them easily; small caps and far-dated contracts often will not, and there the spread matters more than the depth.
Other wheel calculators
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- CSP Cash CalculatorHow much cash gets locked up when you sell a put.
- 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.
- 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.