MU at RSI 79 and INTC up 149% in 90 Days — Here's How I'm Playing It

Key Lesson: Know Your Earnings Dates Before They Know You

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Market Recap

The VIX is sitting at 17 this week — not fearful, not complacent, just... steady. That's actually a decent environment for the wheel strategy: implied volatility is high enough to collect meaningful premium, but not so elevated that the market is screaming danger. SPY is holding at $737.58 and breadth is neutral with 58% of tracked stocks above their 200-day SMA. We're not in a runaway bull environment, but we're not broken either. Think of this as a 'show me' market — it needs a catalyst to pick a direction. Sector-wise, the standout story this week is semiconductors and tech. INTC is up 149% over 90 days, MU is up 87% over 90 days, and SOXL has nearly doubled in a month. That kind of momentum is exciting, but it also means RSIs are stretched — MU is at 79, INTC at 75, and several others are pushing overbought territory. The energy and utilities space (XLE at $57.57) remains quieter, and defensives like XLP ($84.45) and XLV ($145.83) are unremarkable. The rotation into high-beta tech and semis is real, and it's showing up loud and clear in our candidate list this week.

Key Lesson

Know Your Earnings Dates Before They Know You

This week's NVDA situation is a perfect reminder: earnings events can turn a well-structured CSP into a coin flip overnight. Before entering any new position — and before the week is out on existing ones — map every open trade against the earnings calendar. If an earnings date falls before your expiration, you need a plan: close early, roll before the announcement, or consciously accept the risk. The wheel strategy is about consistent, manageable income — not gambling on quarterly surprises.

Featured Trade Analysis

$ASTS

I sold a $65 CSP on ASTS with 30 DTE, collecting $3.55 when IVR was a scorching 104% — that's exactly the kind of elevated IV environment where I want to be a premium seller, not a buyer. ASTS is a speculative space-tech name with enormous implied moves baked in, so the strike selection at -0.25 delta was intentional: I want the cushion, not the excitement. The $3.55 collected on a $65 strike is over 5% of the notional value in a single month — that's the power of selling into high IV.

When IVR is above 100%, the market is pricing in fear or uncertainty — that's your cue to sell premium, not sit on your hands.

$HOOD

My HOOD covered call at the $90 strike expiring August 21 is a 100 DTE position where I collected $12.07 — a substantial credit that gives me meaningful downside cushion on shares I'm already holding. At IVR 74% and with HOOD having made a big run, I was happy to cap my upside at $90 and bank that premium. This is the covered call doing exactly what it's supposed to do: monetizing a high-IV environment on a stock I own while defining my exit point.

When you're already long a volatile stock with elevated IV, selling a CC at a strike you'd be happy to sell at is not giving up upside — it's getting paid to set a limit order.

$NVDA

I have a $185 CSP on NVDA expiring June 5, but NVDA reports earnings on May 20 — that's before my expiration date. I entered this position with 23 DTE and IVR at 46%, which was acceptable at the time, but now I need to be watching this closely as we approach the earnings date. I did not enter this position expecting to ride through earnings, so I'll be evaluating whether to close or roll before May 20 to avoid the binary event risk.

Always map your open positions against the earnings calendar — a CSP that looks clean at entry can become an earnings gamble as the date approaches.

$AAL

I'm carrying a covered call on AAL at the $12.50 strike expiring May 29 — and I collected exactly $0 in premium, which means this was a roll or a position adjustment rather than a fresh income trade. Carrying a $0-premium covered call means I'm essentially just holding the stock with a ceiling, waiting for a better entry point to collect meaningful income. This is a real situation that happens in the wheel: sometimes your CC strikes get tested and you roll for no credit just to manage the position.

Not every covered call generates income — sometimes you roll to manage assignment risk or buy time, and that's a legitimate use of the strategy even when the credit is zero.

IV Environment

VIX at 17 puts us in a moderate IV environment — not the screaming panic of VIX 30+, but meaningfully above the complacent sub-14 levels we sometimes see in smooth bull markets. Several individual names are running far hotter than the broad market implies: MRNA, S, BB, and QCOM all carry IVR at 100%, while ASTS (104% at my entry) and INTC (98%) show that stock-specific fear and momentum can supercharge premiums even when the index is calm. This divergence between low broad-market VIX and elevated single-stock IVR is exactly the environment wheel traders love — you can be selective, pick your spots, and collect outsized premium without needing a fearful macro backdrop.

Top Cash-Secured Put Candidates

Ticker	Strike	Expiry	Premium	IV Rank	Ann ROC	Rationale
$MRNA	$47	Jun 12	$2.25	100	58%	With IVR at a perfect 100% and RSI at a measured 57 (not overbought), MRNA offers one of the cleanest IV-rich setups on the list — max premium environment with a stock that isn't already stretched to the sky.
$S	$14	Jun 12	$0.53	100	46%	SentinelOne carries IVR of 100%, a strong analyst buy consensus with a price target 18% above current levels, and a low beta of 0.79 — making it a rare high-IV, lower-volatility cybersecurity setup for conservative wheel traders.
$PANW	$195	Jun 12	$4.98	91	31%	Palo Alto Networks has IVR at 91%, a beta of just 0.77, and 64 analysts with a buy rating — it's the blue-chip cybersecurity name on this list, offering steady premium with significantly less whipsaw risk than the speculative names.
$CLSK	$11.5	Jun 12	$0.65	65	68%	CleanSpark offers a 68% annualized ROC with analysts projecting 43% upside to their price target, and at a $11.50 strike the notional risk is modest — a solid small-size speculative position for those comfortable with crypto-adjacent names.
$IONQ	$48	Jun 12	$2.73	71	69%	IonQ sits in the emerging quantum computing space with IVR at 71%, analyst price target 19% above current levels, and insider buying — making it one of the more conviction-backed speculative setups on the list this week.

Top Covered Call Candidates

Ticker	Strike	Expiry	Premium	IV Rank	Ann ROC	Rationale
$INTC	$150	Jun 12	$4.58	98	37%	INTC has surged 149% in 90 days and IVR is at 98% — if you're holding assigned shares from a prior CSP, selling the $150 call caps your upside at a level most analysts already consider above fair value while banking strong premium.
$QCOM	$250	Jun 18	$6.7	100	27%	With IVR at 100% and analysts holding a consensus price target 17% below current price, selling a covered call on QCOM at $250 lets you collect maximum premium while staying above a strike the market already views as stretched.
$RKLB	$150	Jun 12	$4.3	87	35%	Rocket Lab is up 66% in 30 days and IVR is at 87% — selling the $150 CC against assigned shares locks in gains at a level 47% above the suggested CSP strike while collecting meaningful premium in a high-momentum name.
$IONQ	$75	Jun 12	$2.42	71	39%	IonQ's $75 covered call offers a 39% annualized ROC with IVR at 71% — for wheel traders holding IONQ shares from a prior assignment, this strike gives ample room above current price while generating solid income in a speculative quantum name.
$STX	$970	Jun 12	$25.35	83	32%	Seagate has the highest IV/HV ratio on the CC list at 50.7%, meaning options are richly priced relative to realized volatility — a textbook condition for covered call selling, and the $25.35 premium on a stock where analysts see no further upside is hard to ignore.

Quick Tips This Week

→With VIX at 17 and many individual stocks showing IVR at 80–100%, this is a good week to prioritize premium quality over quantity — one well-selected high-IVR trade beats three mediocre ones in a moderate-volatility environment.
→The earnings calendar is loaded through May 20 — before entering any new CSP or CC, verify that no earnings date falls between now and your expiration; a binary event inside your trade window can erase weeks of premium collection in a single session.
→When RSIs across multiple candidates are pushing 70–79, be especially disciplined about strike selection — a -0.25 delta or lower gives you a meaningful buffer if the momentum stocks that drove recent gains begin to mean-revert.

The wheel doesn't reward excitement — it rewards patience, process, and the discipline to keep selling premium when others are either too greedy or too scared to do it consistently.

Trade logically,

James Henson

Founder, Option Wheel Logic

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is AI-assisted market commentary for informational and educational purposes only. It is not financial advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Option Wheel Logic is not a registered investment advisor, broker-dealer, or licensed financial professional.

Options trading involves significant risk, including the potential loss of the entire amount invested. Strategies such as cash-secured puts and covered calls may result in assignment of shares or missed upside. Past performance of any strategy or ticker mentioned is not indicative of future results. All data, strikes, premiums, and IV figures are sourced from third-party providers and may be delayed or inaccurate – always verify with your broker before placing any trade.

Consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions. By using this site you acknowledge that you are solely responsible for your own trading decisions.