01 · Anatomy
Three ideas that make the strategy work
01
A ladder, not a single bet
Five price rungs $5 apart, each pre-funded with cash to buy 100 shares. The rungs cover the realistic range a stock trades in over months — not where you hope it goes.
02
Weekly contracts, not monthly
Time decay accelerates in the last 7 days of an option’s life. Selling 4 weekly puts at the same strike out-earns one 4-week put. The whole ladder operates on a Mon–Fri rhythm.
03
Roll first, get assigned second
When a put goes in-the-money near expiry, you buy it back and re-sell next week’s — usually for a net credit. In real trades, ~55% of puts are rolled, ~30% expire worthless, only ~15% actually assign.
02 · Ladder builder
Build your own ladder
Pick a realistic range for any stock and see how the cash, premium, and yield change. Default values mirror the real SLV ladder.
| Level | Strike | Cash reserved | Est. weekly premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | $60 | $6,000 | +$120 |
| #2 | $65 | $6,500 | +$130 |
| #3 | $70 | $7,000 | +$140 |
| #4 | $75 | $7,500 | +$150 |
| #5 | $80 | $8,000 | +$160 |
| Total | $35,000 | 2 active rungs ≈ $250/wk | |
Capital required
$35,000
Active weekly premium
$250
Annualized yield
37.1%
The estimate assumes only the 2 rungs nearest the spot price are active each week (the rest stand by as catastrophe coverage). The default 2% per week per strike is a typical SLV near-the-money put — the real ladder averaged closer to 4% on the closest rung. Move the slider to see the range. Premium scales roughly linearly with implied volatility.
03 · Weekly rhythm
A week in the ladder
Most weeks are uneventful — sell on Tuesday, collect on Friday. The interesting decisions happen Thursday afternoon.
Scan
Check SLV spot price. Identify the 2 rungs closest to it.
Sell
Sell weekly puts on those rungs, expiring Friday. Premium hits the account immediately.
Watch
Most days nothing happens. Time decay is doing the work in the background.
Decide
If a put is in-the-money, prepare to roll. Pick the next week’s strike.
Resolve
Expire worthless? Cash kept. Roll? New trade for next week. Assigned? Switch to selling calls Monday.
The math behind weekly
A 4-week put pays roughly 2× the premium of a 1-week put — but you can sell 4 weekly putsin that same month. That's why the real SLV ladder almost never sells anything longer than 7 days out: weeklies harvest theta the fastest.
04 · The roll
What "rolling" actually means
The single most important mechanic in the strategy. Half of all puts in the real data were rolled — never assigned, never expired worthless.
Without rolling
Get assigned, take the shares
- ✗Cash gets locked into shares immediately.
- ✗If stock keeps falling, you lose on the position.
- ✗Have to wait for recovery + sell calls to exit.
With rolling
Buy back, sell next week
- ✓Stay in cash, no shares yet.
- ✓Net positive credit on the roll (usually).
- ✓Keep optionality if the stock recovers.
Real example: Mar 19 → Apr 15
05 · Outcomes
Where every put ends up
Distribution measured across 50+ puts in the real SLV ladder. Notice: assignment is the exception, not the rule.
Expires worthless
30%Stock above strike at expiry
The put dies, you keep 100% of premium. Most boring, most desirable outcome.
Rolled forward
55%In-the-money near expiry, rolled instead
Most common outcome. Buy the put back, sell next week’s — net positive credit, no assignment.
Assigned
12%Took the shares at strike
Ladder flips: now selling covered calls on the assigned shares until they’re called away.
Crash through
3%Stock falls well below strike
You own shares at a loss on paper. Premiums offset, but the ladder must be sized so you can hold.
06 · Trade log
12 weeks of actual trades
Numbers below come straight from the trade log. Nothing is back-tested or hypothetical.
Feb 2026
+$1,953
Mar 2026
+$2,627
Apr 2026
+$2,164
Premium by strike level
Total: $6,744 across 62 trades
The $70 rung sees the most activity (it sat closest to spot most of the period). The $80 rung paid the most because it's the rung that took repeated assignments and was sold in calls at premium prices.
Bottom line
$6,744
Premium banked, 86 days
19.3%
Period return on $35k
~82%
Annualized run rate
Three rungs ended the period still holding assigned shares. The annualized number is the run rate of the premium engine; the actual P&L on those holdings depends on where SLV trades when they're called away.
07 · Stress test
What happens in different markets?
Click a scenario to see how the ladder behaves. Numbers are illustrative based on the same $35k SLV ladder.
SLV stays inside $60–$80
The ideal environment. Most puts expire worthless or get rolled at a credit. Premium income compounds. This was roughly the actual environment for the 12-week real period.
Estimated 12-week P&L
+$6,744
Annualized run rate
~82%
The honest takeaway:the ladder thrives in flat/rangy markets and survives mild down-trends. A real crash hurts. Pick rungs at prices you genuinely want to own the underlying at — that's the only thing that makes the worst-case bearable.
Ready to track your own ladder?
Sign in with a magic link — no card, no setup. A demo SLV ladder is preloaded so you can poke around immediately.