Tracking Your First Ticker on MyATMM: Complete Stock Options Tutorial

Introduction: Your First Steps Into Accurate Option Tracking

When you first create a MyATMM account, you face a blank dashboard and an important question: how do you actually enter your first position and start tracking your option income strategy? The process of setting up your first ticker symbol, entering a cash-secured put, recording an assignment, and selling your first covered call creates the foundation for all your future cost basis tracking and portfolio management.

This comprehensive tutorial walks through every step of the process using a demo account tracking Microsoft (MSFT) as an example. You will learn how to add ticker symbols to your covered call and cash-secured put screening tool, enter your first option transaction with accurate premium and strike data, process a stock assignment when your put expires in the money, sell a covered call against your newly acquired shares, and understand the cost basis calculations that drive intelligent trading decisions.

Whether you are brand new to option selling or transitioning from spreadsheet tracking to a purpose-built platform, this guide provides the concrete workflow you need to start tracking your first position accurately. The same process demonstrated with Microsoft applies to any underlying stock you choose to trade, making this tutorial your blueprint for setting up your entire option portfolio in MyATMM.

Step 1: Adding Ticker Symbols to Your Watchlist

The first step in using MyATMM involves adding ticker symbols to your covered call and cash-secured put screen. This screen provides the foundation for all your option tracking by storing the latest price data for each stock you want to monitor. The platform checks prices approximately twice daily, ensuring your cost basis calculations and position analysis always reference current market values.

Why Add Tickers First?

Before you can track a position in the cost basis section, MyATMM needs to know which ticker symbols you are interested in trading. Adding tickers to the screening tool accomplishes several important functions:

• Automatic price updates: MyATMM retrieves and stores the last traded price for each ticker twice daily, providing current market data without manual entry
• Cost basis dropdown population: Once a ticker is added to the screening tool, it becomes available in the cost basis tracking section for position entry
• Portfolio overview preparation: Having current prices for all your tracked tickers enables the dashboard to display accurate position values and unrealized gains or losses
• Weekly ATR calculation: The platform calculates the weekly average trading range for each ticker, providing valuable volatility context for strike selection

Adding Multiple Tickers Simultaneously

The demonstration adds three ticker symbols at once: Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Tesla (TSLA). The process is straightforward:

1. Navigate to the Covered Call / Cash-Secured Put screen from the main menu
2. Enter the first ticker symbol in the input field at the top of the screen
3. Press Enter or click the Add button to add that ticker to the list
4. Repeat for additional tickers you want to track
5. Click the main Add button to process all entered tickers simultaneously

If any ticker symbol fails to add (due to invalid symbol or data retrieval issues), the system displays a failure message that you can click to see details about what went wrong. In the demonstration, all three tickers add successfully, appearing in the list with their current prices, daily changes, and other relevant market data.

Step 2: Setting Up Cost Basis Tracking for Your First Position

After adding ticker symbols to your watchlist, the next step involves navigating to the cost basis screen where you will track all your actual positions and transactions. This is where MyATMM transforms from a screening tool into a comprehensive position tracking system that calculates your true cost basis including all premium collected.

Selecting Your Ticker in Cost Basis

When you first access the cost basis screen, the ticker dropdown is empty because you have not yet told MyATMM which position you want to track. The demonstration shows selecting MSFT from the dropdown:

1. Click the ticker symbol dropdown at the top of the cost basis screen
2. Select MSFT from the list of tickers you added in the previous step
3. Click Save to retain this selection

After saving, MSFT appears in the dropdown and the screen refreshes showing an empty transaction history ready for your first entry. This establishes MSFT as an active tracking position in your portfolio, though you have not yet entered any transactions or owned any shares.

Understanding the Empty State

The cost basis screen initially shows zero shares owned, zero collateral committed, and no transaction history. This blank slate provides the starting point for building a complete record of every transaction that affects your position: option sales, option expirations or buybacks, stock assignments, stock sales, dividends received, and any other activity that impacts your cost basis or realized gains.

The power of MyATMM becomes apparent as you populate this transaction history over time, creating a comprehensive audit trail that calculates your exact cost basis with premium automatically after each new transaction. Unlike spreadsheets where formulas can break or manual calculations introduce errors, MyATMM maintains accurate calculations through the entire lifecycle of your position.

Step 3: Entering Your First Cash-Secured Put Transaction

Most option sellers begin building positions by selling cash-secured puts, which obligate you to purchase 100 shares per contract at the strike price if the option expires in the money. The tutorial demonstrates entering a cash-secured put that you will later assign, creating the share position you need for selling covered calls.

The New Position Interface

Clicking "New Position" opens a transaction entry form with several required fields. The demonstration enters the following details for the cash-secured put:

After entering these details and submitting the transaction, MyATMM adds it to your transaction history and updates the position summary showing $24,000 in collateral committed (the $240 strike times 100 shares). This collateral represents the buying power your broker reserves to ensure you can purchase the shares if assigned.

Why the Last Price Did Not Load Initially

The demonstration includes an interesting technical note: when first entering the transaction, the last price did not automatically populate. This occurred because MSFT was a brand new ticker selection, and the system needed a moment to load the current price data. After refreshing and clicking "New Position" again, the last price appeared correctly, showing $238.30 as the current market price.

This minor detail illustrates the importance of verifying that current price data loads before entering transactions, as you may want to reference the current stock price when deciding whether your strike selection represents good value relative to where the stock is trading.

Step 4: Processing Stock Assignment From Your Cash-Secured Put

When your cash-secured put expires in the money (stock price below strike price at expiration), you receive an assignment requiring you to purchase 100 shares per contract at the strike price. Processing this assignment in MyATMM updates your position to reflect share ownership, removes the put collateral, and calculates your initial cost basis.

Clicking the Assign Button

The transaction history shows your sell to open put transaction with several action buttons next to it. Clicking the "Assign" button opens the assignment interface where you enter the details of the stock purchase that resulted from the option assignment:

• Assignment Type: Stock Assignment (as opposed to closing the option position)
• Shares Purchased: 100 shares (one contract equals 100 shares)
• Assignment Price: $240 (the strike price of the put)
• Assignment Date: The date you received the assignment notice

After submitting the assignment details, MyATMM processes several important updates to your position:

1. Removes the $24,000 put collateral since the put no longer exists
2. Records the stock purchase of 100 shares at $240 per share for $24,000 total cost
3. Adds the assignment transaction to your history showing the stock purchase
4. Calculates your initial cost basis as $240 per share (the assignment price)
5. Updates the position summary to show 100 shares owned with current market value

Cleaning Up the Proposed Records

The demonstration mentions cleaning up records, referencing processes covered in other detailed videos. This refers to MyATMM's proposed records feature, which shows draft transactions that have not yet been moved to your permanent transaction history. After processing the assignment, you need to retain or save the transaction records to ensure they appear in your permanent history for accurate tracking going forward.

Step 5: Selling Your First Covered Call

Now that you own 100 shares of MSFT from the cash-secured put assignment, you can generate additional income by selling a covered call against those shares. Covered calls obligate you to sell your shares at the strike price if the option expires in the money, capping your upside in exchange for immediate premium income.

Entering the Covered Call Details

The process of entering a covered call follows the same interface as entering the cash-secured put, but with different transaction details reflecting that you are now selling a call against owned shares:

After submitting the covered call transaction, MyATMM adds it to your transaction history and moves it to the "Open Positions" section showing that you currently have an active covered call that expires this Friday at the $245 strike.

Reviewing Your Complete Transaction History

The position screen now displays your complete transaction sequence showing the full cycle of income generation:

1. Sold cash-secured put: Collected $125 premium ($1.25 per share)
2. Received stock assignment: Purchased 100 shares at $240 for $24,000
3. Sold covered call: Collected $145 premium ($1.45 per share)

This transaction history provides the complete audit trail MyATMM uses to calculate your cost basis with premium, showing exactly how much income you have collected and how that income reduces your effective cost per share below the assignment price.

Understanding Cost Basis Calculations: Where the Power Lives

The most valuable feature of MyATMM appears in the position summary section after you have entered your transactions. The platform calculates multiple cost basis figures that provide different perspectives on your position profitability and help you make informed decisions about future trades.

Key Metrics in Your Position Summary

The top of the cost basis screen displays critical metrics updated automatically after each transaction:

Why Cost Basis With Premium Matters

The most important metric for option sellers is cost basis with premium, which represents your true effective cost per share after accounting for all income collected. In this example, the cost basis with premium of $237.30 comes from the following calculation:

$240.00 (assignment cost) - $1.25 (put premium) - $1.45 (call premium) = $237.30 per share

This $2.70 reduction in effective cost basis means you are much closer to breakeven than the simple assignment price suggests. If the stock rises above $237.30, your position becomes profitable on a total return basis even though you originally purchased shares at $240. Every additional premium you collect continues to reduce this effective cost basis, eventually bringing the position to profitability even if the stock price never returns to your original assignment price.

Cost Basis With Puts: Understanding Proposed Cost Basis

The demonstration mentions that cost basis with puts shows the same value as regular cost basis with premium in this example because there are no open put positions. When you have active cash-secured puts that could result in future assignments, MyATMM calculates a proposed cost basis that shows what your cost basis would become if all your puts were assigned. This forward-looking metric helps you evaluate whether additional put sales would improve or worsen your average cost per share.

Weekly Average Trading Range: Context for Strike Selection

The position summary includes a weekly ATR (Average Trading Range) indicator that provides valuable context for evaluating strike selection risk. The demonstration shows hovering over this indicator reveals it represents the weekly average trading range, telling you how much the stock typically moves in a one-week period.

How to Use Weekly ATR

The tutorial explains that if a stock trades $8 weekly on average, and you sell a covered call with a $245 strike while the stock sits at $240, the $5 difference is below the average weekly move. This means the stock statistically could reach your strike within the week if it makes a typical-sized move, increasing the probability of assignment.

Understanding this volatility context helps you make informed strike selection decisions:

• Strikes within one ATR: Higher probability of being reached, collect more premium but accept more assignment risk
• Strikes beyond one ATR: Lower probability of being reached, collect less premium but reduce assignment risk
• Strikes at or above cost basis: No capital loss risk if assigned, suitable for conservative traders
• Strikes below cost basis: Capital loss risk if assigned, only appropriate if you can monitor and roll the position

The weekly ATR transforms from an abstract number into a practical tool for evaluating whether your strike selection matches your risk tolerance and trading style.

Dashboard and Portfolio View: Seeing the Big Picture

After entering your first position transactions, the tutorial returns to the dashboard to show how MyATMM aggregates all your positions into a portfolio-level view. This is where the power of tracking multiple tickers becomes apparent, as you can see your entire option portfolio's performance at a glance.

Initial Dashboard View

When viewing the dashboard with only one position tracked (MSFT), all the portfolio metrics reflect that single position. The demonstration shows several key dashboard features:

• Total transactions: Count of all transactions entered across your portfolio
• Position breakdown: Each ticker shown with current value and performance
• Capital allocation percentage: Initially shows very high percentages because no deposits have been recorded

Adding Your Initial Deposit

The high capital allocation percentage (showing absurd values like several hundred percent) occurs because MyATMM does not know how much total capital you have in your account. Recording your initial deposit fixes this issue and provides accurate capital allocation metrics.

The demonstration shows adding an initial deposit of $50,000:

1. Navigate to the deposits/withdrawals section
2. Click to add a new deposit
3. Enter "Initial Deposit" as the description
4. Enter $50,000 as the amount
5. Save the deposit transaction

After recording this deposit and returning to the dashboard, the capital allocation percentages make sense: the unused capital shows approximately 52%, meaning you have not deployed about half your capital. The MSFT position shows using approximately 47.56% of total capital, which accurately reflects the $24,000 committed to the position relative to the $50,000 total account size.

Portfolio Metrics That Drive Decisions

These portfolio-level metrics help you make strategic decisions about position sizing and capital deployment:

• Capital allocation by position: Ensures you maintain appropriate diversification across tickers
• Unused capital percentage: Shows how much buying power remains for new opportunities
• Total portfolio value: Combines all position values for net worth tracking
• Overall performance: Aggregates gains, losses, and income across all positions

Complete Workflow Summary: Your Blueprint for Every Position

The tutorial successfully demonstrates entering a complete option cycle from scratch, creating a repeatable workflow you can apply to every ticker you trade. This systematic approach ensures accurate cost basis tracking and comprehensive transaction history for tax reporting and performance analysis.

The Six-Step Setup Process

1. Add ticker symbols: Enter all your trading candidates in the covered call / cash-secured put screen to enable automatic price tracking
2. Select ticker for cost basis tracking: Choose which ticker you want to track as an active position and save that selection
3. Enter your first transaction: Add a cash-secured put (or covered call if you already own shares) with accurate dates, strikes, and premiums
4. Process assignments or expirations: Use the action buttons to record what happened to each option at expiration
5. Continue the cycle: Add new covered calls after assignments or new cash-secured puts to build position size
6. Record deposits: Enter your initial account funding and any subsequent deposits or withdrawals for accurate capital allocation tracking

Key Concepts to Remember

Several critical concepts from this tutorial apply to all your future position tracking:

• Cost basis with premium is your true breakeven: This is the number that matters for evaluating position profitability
• Transaction history creates accountability: Every transaction entered builds an audit trail for tax reporting and performance measurement
• Weekly ATR provides strike context: Use volatility data to evaluate whether your strike selection matches your risk tolerance
• Dashboard aggregates performance: Portfolio-level metrics show capital allocation and overall performance across all positions
• Automatic price updates simplify tracking: MyATMM retrieves current prices twice daily, eliminating manual data entry