Best stocks to sell puts on right now?

Screening Filters

1. market_cap_category: large, mid, small

   • Purpose: Include stocks across the main size buckets, rather than limiting the search to only one market-cap group.
   • Rationale: When selling puts, you want enough opportunities to find liquid, tradable names with option markets. Large caps often provide stability and tighter spreads, while mid and small caps can offer higher premiums. Keeping all three categories broadens the opportunity set without excluding potentially attractive put-selling candidates.

2. relative_vol: min 1.5

   • Purpose: Focus on stocks with elevated trading volume relative to normal.
   • Rationale: Higher relative volume often signals active interest and better liquidity, which is important for option sellers. It can also indicate a stock that is moving and attracting attention, potentially creating richer option premiums.

3. moving_average_relationship: PriceAboveMA20

   • Purpose: Select stocks trading above their 20-day moving average.
   • Rationale: This is a short-term bullish trend filter. For put selling, you generally want stocks that are not in immediate technical weakness, since you prefer names with a better chance of holding up or grinding higher while the short put decays in value.

4. free_cash_flow_ttm: min 0

   • Purpose: Require positive trailing twelve-month free cash flow.
   • Rationale: Positive free cash flow suggests the business is generating cash after capital expenditures, which is a sign of financial quality. For selling puts, that matters because stronger companies are less likely to suffer severe downside moves that could hurt the short put position.

5. net_margin: min 0

   • Purpose: Require profitable operations on a net income basis.
   • Rationale: Companies with positive net margins are generally healthier and more stable. This reduces the chance of catching a falling knife and helps target stocks that are more suitable for a conservative options-selling strategy.

6. is_optionable: True

   • Purpose: Limit the list to stocks that actually have listed options.
   • Rationale: This is essential because the strategy is to sell puts, and you can only do that on optionable names.

7. option_sentiments: Bullish, Neutral

   • Purpose: Include stocks where the options market sentiment is not strongly bearish.
   • Rationale: For put selling, you want names where the market is not heavily positioned against the stock. Bullish or neutral sentiment supports the idea that downside risk may be more contained and that premium can be sold with better odds of success.

8. analyst_consensus: Strong Buy, Moderate Buy, Hold

   • Purpose: Favor stocks that analysts view positively or at least not negatively.
   • Rationale: Analyst support can help filter out weaker fundamentals and deteriorating stories. For selling puts, this helps focus on names that institutions and analysts are not broadly expecting to break down.

Why Results Match:

• Selling puts works best on stocks with solid fundamentals, liquid options, and at least some underlying strength. These filters are designed to find exactly that.
• Positive cash flow and profitability reduce the odds of major fundamental deterioration.
• Price above the 20-day moving average and bullish/neutral option sentiment help avoid names already showing strong technical or sentiment-based weakness.
• Optionable stocks with higher relative volume are more likely to have tradable option premiums and tighter spreads, which is important for executing a put-selling strategy efficiently.
• Including large, mid, and small caps keeps the screen broad enough to uncover the best opportunities rather than restricting it too narrowly.

In short, these filters are aimed at finding stocks that are financially healthier, technically stable, and option-liquid, which are the most relevant traits for selling puts right now.