Best cash-secured put screeners
The number that matters on a cash-secured put is return on the cash it ties up, not the premium in dollars. A screener that ranks by credit will point you at expensive strikes on stocks you do not want to own. Four tools, and what each gets right.
There is a filter no software can apply for you, and it outranks everything below: would you be happy owning 100 shares of this at the strike, next week, after bad news. If the answer is no, the yield is irrelevant. Every put you sell is that commitment, and the maximum loss is the break-even times 100, reached if the stock goes to zero.
With that established, here is what the tools do.
1. OptionsKing
Free.
Puts are scored on the same deterministic 0 to 100 scale as calls, with the same floor: nothing below 60 reaches you, 75 recommended. The per-ticker pages show the cash each contract secures alongside the return on it, because that is the ratio that decides the trade. Liquidity and the earnings date in the window are scored, not optional.
Where it falls down: 60 tickers publicly, no naked put support, no margin modelling, and nothing in the App Store yet.
2. Barchart Premier
Premier is $29.95 a month billed monthly, $199.95 for a year, or $368.00 for two years. The annual and two-year plans carry a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Coverage across effectively the whole optionable market, and the screener will happily sort thousands of puts by whatever you point it at.
Where it falls down: sorting by yield across thousands of names is a fast route to a list of high-implied-volatility problems. Use the liquidity columns, and do not skip the earnings calendar.
3. Market Chameleon
Paid subscription, several named plans.
The strongest tool here for the question behind a put sale, which is how violently this thing can move. Their historical move data is the honest way to size a strike rather than guessing from delta alone.
Where it falls down: it will not narrow the field to two candidates for you. That is your job on their platform.
4. Option Alpha
Pro runs $149 a month, or $99 a month if you pay for the year up front. Two broker promotions drop that to $0 a month if you keep a qualifying balance: $5,000 at Tradier, $10,000 at TradeStation.
Worth it if you want the wheel mechanics automated: put sold, assigned, call written, without you managing each leg. A 30-day trial, no card needed.
Where it falls down: automating a strategy you have not tested by hand is a fast way to scale a mistake.
Pricing and features for Option Alpha, Market Chameleon and Barchart were read off their own site on August 4, 2026. Prices move, and plans get renamed. Check the current number with them before you spend anything on the strength of this page.
The three checks worth running on every candidate
- Return on the secured cash, annualized. The cash-secured put calculator does this in one screen, free.
- Break-even against where you would actually want to buy. If the break-even is above a price you would call fair value, you are being paid to buy high.
- Earnings inside the window. Either you are being paid for that risk deliberately, or you did not notice it. Only one of those is a trade.
Where OptionsKing is weak
It is new. Neither app is in the App Store or on Google Play yet, so today it runs in a browser and that is the whole distribution story. It covers 60 tickers on the public data pages, not five thousand. It does one strategy family, premium selling, and it has nothing to say about spreads, calendars, or anything you would put on in a directional bet.
And the gate cuts both ways. On the first public snapshot, taken in a dead-flat low-volatility tape, not one strike across all 60 names cleared the 75 bar. Zero. A screener with a looser bar would have handed you a full page of ideas that week, and some of them would have worked out fine.
Questions people actually ask
What makes a cash-secured put screen different from a covered call screen?
The capital question. A CSP ties up the strike times 100 in cash per contract, so the number that matters is return on that capital, not premium in dollars. A $2.10 credit is excellent on a $45 strike and thin on a $310 one.
Should a screener filter on whether I want to own the stock?
No screener can know that, and it is the most important filter there is. Every cash-secured put is a commitment to buy 100 shares at the strike no matter how far the stock has fallen. Apply that one yourself, first.
What return on capital is realistic?
It depends entirely on the volatility regime, which is a real answer and not a dodge. In a quiet tape a 0.20 delta put 30 days out on a liquid large cap might annualize in the single digits. Anything advertising a fixed monthly percentage is selling you something.
Related calculators
Competitor facts were read from first-party sources on August 4, 2026: Option Alpha, Market Chameleon, Barchart. OptionsKing publishes this page and ranks itself first. Nothing here is investment advice. See the disclaimer.