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TIME-DEPENDENT OPTIONS STRATEGY

Poor Man’s Covered Call Calculator

Compare a long-dated call plus a shorter call against the capital required for 100 shares.

Live or manual legs

Select available Schwab-backed contracts or enter values manually.

Long deep-ITM LEAPS call · long 1×
Short nearer-term call · short 1×

Strategy summary

Estimated values from the selected legs.

Total debit
$2,900.00
Short-call premium
$300.00
Estimated break-even
$99.00
Capital required
$2,900.00
100-share capital
$10,000.00
Capital difference
$7,100.00
Estimated return
10.34%

OPTIONS TRADE

MANUAL long call 70 32 2027-01-15 / short call 105 3 2026-10-16
Expiration
StrategyPOOR MAN'S COVERED CALL
Contracts1 CONTRACT
Net debit2900
MAX PROFIT10.34% estimated return
MAX LOSS2900

Risk and limitations

Short calls can be assigned early. The long call is not equivalent to shares; returns and risk depend on delta, time value, volatility, and the two expirations.

How this calculator works

A poor man’s covered call pairs a deep in-the-money long-dated call with a shorter-dated short call.

Formula or payoff

Total debit is LEAPS call cost minus short-call premium; the comparison estimates capital against buying 100 shares.

Practical example

A $32 long call offset by a $3 short call has a $29 net debit per share before fees.

Risk and limitations

The long call is not shares. Delta, time value, early assignment, and expiration mismatch affect actual results.