Successfully implementing the wheel strategy on Bitcoin ETF BITO requires more than just placing covered call and cash-secured put trades each week. The foundation of long-term profitability comes from systematic transaction tracking that captures every assignment, every premium collected, and every commission paid to calculate your true cost basis and inform future strike selection decisions.
Most brokers provide basic position tracking, but their cost basis calculations fail to reflect the premium-adjusted reality that option sellers need. When you sell a cash-secured put at $23.50 and collect $1.90 in premium, your effective acquisition cost if assigned is $21.60 per share, not $23.50. This distinction becomes critical when deciding which covered call strikes to sell and when to roll positions.
This article walks through a complete weekly workflow using MyATMM to track BITO transactions from broker execution through permanent record keeping, demonstrating how to record cash-secured put assignments, mark expired covered calls as closed, and plan new positions based on accurate cost basis data. You will learn the systematic process that transforms raw transaction data into actionable intelligence for income-focused option trading.
Brokers track positions for regulatory reporting purposes, showing average cost per share based on stock purchase transactions. This regulatory cost basis serves tax reporting requirements but fails to reflect the economic reality of option selling strategies where premium collection fundamentally changes your effective acquisition cost.
Consider a position built through nine separate cash-secured put assignments at various strike prices over four months. Your broker shows an average cost basis of $28.31 per share based purely on the assignment prices. However, you collected $2,449 in total premium across all those transactions, which when factored into your 900 share position reduces your true economic cost basis to $27.78 per share.
This $0.53 difference per share represents real money: on 900 shares, that's $477 in collected premium that your broker's cost basis calculation ignores. When you sell covered calls, you need to know your premium-adjusted cost basis to avoid selling strikes below your true breakeven point and potentially locking in economic losses.
The wheel strategy generates multiple transaction types that all impact your position economics:
Dedicated tracking software like MyATMM captures all these transaction types in one system, calculating how each affects your cost basis and maintaining complete history for tax reporting and performance analysis.
The weekly workflow begins by logging into your broker platform and navigating to the account statement or transaction history section. For ThinkOrSwim users, this involves selecting an appropriate date range that captures transactions from the previous week's option expirations.
Option expirations typically occur on Fridays, with assignment notifications appearing in your account on Saturday morning. To capture these transactions, you need to set your statement date range to include several days before the expiration and a few days after. In the demonstration, the trader initially sets the range to recent days but finds no relevant transactions, then expands to 15 days in the past to capture the trades from two weeks prior.
This date range adjustment highlights an important tracking principle: set your review window wide enough to catch all relevant transactions, especially when reviewing after weekends or holidays when processing delays may occur.
Once the account statement displays, you need to identify which transactions require recording. The demonstration shows three key transactions:
Notice that the covered call appears in the list but didn't result in an assignment because it expired out of the money (stock stayed below $28.50). This expired option still generated premium income that needs recording, but requires different handling than the assigned put.
Broker account statements often include numerous transaction types unrelated to your option trades: dividend payments, interest charges, start-of-day balance entries, and more. The demonstration shows using ThinkOrSwim's filter feature to eliminate "start of day balances" from the view, consolidating the display to show only relevant option and assignment transactions.
This filtering step makes the transcription process faster and reduces the chance of accidentally recording irrelevant transactions or missing important ones buried in account noise.
With broker transactions identified, the next step involves logging into MyATMM and navigating to the cost basis tracking screen for BITO. This requires having the broker statement visible on screen alongside MyATMM to facilitate accurate data entry without switching windows repeatedly.
The first transaction to record is the cash-secured put sale. This involves entering several specific data points:
After entering these details and clicking Save, MyATMM moves this position into the active puts group and generates a proposed transaction record showing the $190 credit minus $0.65 in commissions and $0.02 in miscellaneous fees. Using the helper function pre-calculates the net credit, which you then save to permanent transaction history.
The covered call follows the same general process with different specific values:
The commission structure differs slightly: $5.20 in commissions and $0.06 in fees. After using the helper to pre-calculate and clicking save, this transaction moves to permanent history alongside the cash-secured put.
The cash-secured put expired in the money, resulting in stock assignment. This requires a different type of transaction recording. Clicking the "Assign" button on the active put position opens the assignment interface where you enter:
An important note from the demonstration: recording this assignment will immediately reduce the overall cost basis for the entire position. Before clicking submit, the cost basis showed $28.31 per share. After processing the assignment, the cost basis drops to $27.78 per share because this latest 100-share acquisition at $23.50 pulls down the average across all 900 shares now owned.
After submitting the assignment, MyATMM generates a proposed transaction record for the $2,350 stock purchase (100 shares at $23.50). Unlike option transactions, stock assignments typically have no commissions or fees, so you simply click save to add this to permanent history.
The covered call expired worthless since the stock never reached $28.50. Rather than being assigned, you simply close this position and keep the entire $112 premium collected when you sold it. The demonstration shows clicking to mark this position as expired, removing it from the active calls group and returning the position to clean state showing only owned shares.
After recording all transactions, MyATMM displays comprehensive position metrics that inform your next trading decisions. Understanding what each metric means and how to use it separates systematic option sellers from those who trade based on intuition alone.
| Metric | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Total Shares | 900 | Current position size acquired through 9 assignments |
| Total Stock Cost | $25,000 | Aggregate capital deployed across all assignments |
| Current Stock Value | $18,315 | Market value based on last trading price of $20.35 |
| Unrealized Loss | $6,685 | Paper loss before accounting for premium collected |
| Total Premium Collected | $2,449 | Net option income after all commissions and fees |
| Average Cost Basis | $27.78 | Per-share average cost from all stock assignments |
| Cost Basis with Premium | $25.00 | Effective cost after subtracting collected premium |
The $27.78 average cost basis versus $25.00 premium-adjusted cost basis represents the $2.78 per share ($2,449 total) premium collected. This gap illustrates the fundamental economics of the wheel strategy: you systematically reduce your effective acquisition cost through premium collection, transforming underwater positions into profitable ones over time as you continue collecting premium on both sides of the market.
With the stock currently trading at $20.35, your premium-adjusted cost basis of $25.00 means you need the stock to recover $4.65 per share to reach breakeven. However, your unrealized loss calculation based on the $27.78 cost basis shows a $6,685 loss. The true economic picture lies between these numbers: you have collected $2,449 in premium that offsets part of the unrealized loss, bringing your true loss to approximately $4,236.
The demonstration reveals nine separate stock assignments that built this 900-share position over four months since April. This systematic accumulation through cash-secured put assignments represents dollar cost averaging in action: each assignment at progressively lower prices pulled down the average cost, improving the overall position economics despite short-term unrealized losses.
This is why assignment should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a problem. Each assignment at an attractive price with strong premium adds shares at cost levels you predetermined were acceptable, building position size that generates more covered call income going forward.
Before placing new trades, successful option sellers examine the underlying stock's recent price behavior to understand momentum, volatility, and probability of reaching various strike prices. This chart analysis combines with cost basis data to create strike selection decisions grounded in both technical and fundamental position economics.
The demonstration shows examining BITO across three timeframes to build complete price context:
One-Year View: Reveals the overall trading range from $12.79 low to $33.79 high. The current $20.35 price sits in the lower third of this range, suggesting the stock has experienced significant downward pressure from peak levels. Multiple assignment markers on the chart show systematic purchases during the decline, illustrating dollar cost averaging through the downtrend.
90-Day View: Narrows focus to recent months showing high of $28.97 and low of $19.26. Current price near the 90-day low suggests the stock may be finding support at current levels or could continue lower if broader market conditions deteriorate.
30-Day View: Provides immediate context showing the stock jumped from a low of $19 to a high of $24 before settling back to current $20.35. This recent volatility creates both opportunity (for premium collection) and risk (for assignment at unfavorable prices).
The key observation from chart analysis involves identifying whether the stock is trending up, down, or sideways. The demonstration notes the 30-day chart suggests BITO may be starting an uptrend after testing the $19 support level and bouncing back above $20.
This uptrend observation has critical implications for covered call strike selection. If the stock is genuinely starting to move higher, selling covered calls below your cost basis becomes riskier because the probability of assignment increases. Getting assigned on covered calls below your cost basis means selling shares at a loss (though partially offset by premium collected), which may not be optimal if the stock continues rising.
Conversely, for cash-secured put selection, an uptrend suggests being more cautious about strike selection and potentially selling further out of the money to reduce assignment probability if you don't want to add more shares at current prices.
With position data and chart analysis complete, the workflow proceeds to evaluating covered call opportunities. This involves examining available premiums at various strikes and expirations to find the optimal balance between income generation and assignment risk based on your specific position.
The demonstration begins by filtering the option chain to display only $28 strikes since the current cost basis (before the most recent assignment was recorded) sat at $28.31. This filtering eliminates visual noise from dozens of other strikes, focusing attention on the most relevant prices for this position.
However, after recording the latest assignment, the cost basis dropped to $27.78, making both $28 and potentially $27 strikes reasonable candidates for assignment-safe covered calls.
The option chain reveals unusual premium patterns at the $28 strike:
The trader notes these wide spreads and inconsistent pricing suggest limited liquidity at this strike. The fact that the 1-week mark sits at $0.05 while the 2-week mark is lower at $0.04 mathematically makes no sense since longer-dated options should have more time value. This indicates the displayed prices may not represent actual tradeable levels.
Given the poor premium at the $28 strike, the analysis shifts to examining the $25 strike to assess whether selling below cost basis with premium might generate better income. The trader explicitly acknowledges this approach carries assignment risk that could lock in economic losses, but notes that the cost basis with premium sits at $25.00, meaning assignment at $25 strike would break even after accounting for all premium collected.
The $25 strike premium structure shows:
The calculation reveals that selling 9 contracts (900 shares) at $0.03 per share generates only $27 in income ($0.03 × 100 shares × 9 contracts). While this is positive income, it represents minimal compensation for tying up position for two weeks with assignment risk.
Ultimately, the demonstration shows placing an order to sell 9 contracts at the $25 strike expiring in approximately 5 days, targeting $0.03 per share premium. The trader sets a limit order at $0.03 (the mark price) rather than accepting the $0.02 bid, hoping the market will fill at the midpoint.
This decision reflects a calculated choice to collect some premium even though it's modest, with the understanding that if assigned at $25, the position would break even on a premium-adjusted basis. The trader explicitly notes this wouldn't work well for traders who cannot monitor positions daily to potentially buy back if the stock moves quickly toward the strike.
The final component of the weekly workflow involves evaluating cash-secured put opportunities to continue systematically building the BITO position through assignments at attractive prices. This process examines at-the-money strikes where premium tends to be most attractive relative to assignment probability.
With BITO trading at approximately $20.35, the demonstration focuses on the $20 strike as the closest at-the-money option. The option chain displays this strike's premium as $0.36 bid to $0.42 ask with a $0.39 mark (midpoint) for the weekly expiration.
The trader performs a quick doubling calculation: $0.36 × 2 = $0.72, noting this doesn't quite equal $0.72, meaning the bid-ask spread is reasonably tight relative to the overall premium. Tighter spreads indicate better liquidity and higher probability of order fills near the mark price.
An interesting observation from the demonstration addresses position sizing for cash-secured puts. The trader acknowledges that with 900 shares currently owned, selling just one cash-secured put contract (potentially adding 100 shares) won't significantly impact the overall cost basis if assigned.
To create more meaningful cost basis reduction, selling 9 contracts (matching the 900 shares owned) would add 900 shares if all assigned, doubling the position size and averaging in at a much lower $20 price point that would substantially reduce the blended cost basis.
However, for demonstration and paper trading purposes, the trader chooses to sell only one contract. This conservative approach limits capital deployment while still demonstrating the mechanics of the strategy. In a real money account focused on aggressive cost basis reduction, matching your cash-secured put contracts to your share count makes mathematical sense if you have the capital available and want to add significantly to the position.
The demonstration shows clicking on the $20 strike bid column, which generates a sell order template. The trader then modifies the premium from the $0.36 bid up to the $0.39 mark price, sets quantity to 1 contract, and confirms the order details before submitting.
If this order fills at $0.39, it will generate $39 in premium (minus commissions) for the one-week commitment. If the option expires in the money (stock drops below $20), assignment will acquire 100 more shares at $20, further reducing the average cost basis. If it expires worthless (stock stays above $20), the $39 premium is kept and the process repeats the following week.
After placing both the covered call and cash-secured put orders, they appear in the broker's working orders section awaiting market open for potential fills. The demonstration shows these orders queued in the activity/positions section, ready to execute when the market opens if the prices are available.
Once the market opens, one of several outcomes occurs for each order:
For the covered call: If the mark price remains at or above $0.03, the order should fill immediately or within minutes of market open. If volatility drops overnight or the stock moves significantly higher, the premium may decrease and the order may not fill at all. If the stock drops, the covered call premium may increase and the order fills easily.
For the cash-secured put: With the order at the mark price of $0.39, the fill probability is quite high assuming no major overnight price movement. If Bitcoin experiences significant volatility over the weekend, the premium could change substantially by Monday morning, either filling immediately or requiring order adjustment.
The following week, this entire process repeats: check which options expired or were assigned, record those transactions in MyATMM, review updated cost basis metrics, analyze current price trends, and place new covered call and cash-secured put orders based on the updated position data.
This systematic weekly rhythm creates a repeatable process that doesn't depend on market predictions or timing. Regardless of whether BITO moves up, down, or sideways, you collect premium and systematically reduce your cost basis through consistent execution of the defined workflow.
Successfully implementing the wheel strategy on BITO or any underlying requires systematic transaction tracking that captures the complete economic picture of your position including all premium collected, all commissions paid, and all assignments received. Dedicated cost basis tracking software transforms raw broker data into actionable intelligence that informs every strike selection decision.
Your broker shows basic cost basis, but systematic option sellers need deeper metrics:
The demonstration illustrates several key principles for strike selection:
The difference between successful long-term option selling and inconsistent results often comes down to tracking discipline. When you maintain complete transaction records, calculate premium-adjusted cost basis, and make data-driven strike selections, you transform option selling from speculation into systematic income generation with clear metrics for measuring success.
Options trading involves significant risk and is not suitable for all investors. Selling cash-secured puts obligates you to purchase shares at the strike price if assigned, which can result in substantial losses if the underlying stock declines significantly. Covered calls cap upside potential and provide only limited downside protection equal to the premium received.
BITO is subject to the risks associated with Bitcoin futures markets, including extreme volatility, liquidity risk, tracking error, and regulatory risk. Bitcoin prices can decline rapidly, causing corresponding declines in BITO share price that could result in significant losses.
Cost basis tracking software provides data organization tools but does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. Past performance of any strategy, including premium collection amounts shown, does not guarantee future results. All trading decisions remain your sole responsibility.
This content is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice or a recommendation to trade any specific security or implement any particular strategy. Always consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.
MyATMM tracks every assignment, calculates premium-adjusted cost basis automatically, and maintains complete transaction history for tax reporting and performance analysis.
Track up to 3 tickers completely free. No credit card required.
Start Tracking Your Wheel Strategy TodayJoin option sellers who track systematic income generation with accurate cost basis