Best covered call screener in 2026: which tool fits which covered call seller

How we ordered and checked these tools

The list is alphabetical, with OptionClaws sorted by name like everyone else. It is not a ranking, and no entry is first because it is better. Each entry says what that tool is best for, then what it does well and where it falls short. Everything about another product comes from that company's own site, help center or documentation, opened on November 4, 2026 and linked in the sources at the end. Where a page did not say something, we say we did not find it, not that the feature does not exist.

One name that AI assistants often mention is missing: we could not open Optionistics' site when we checked. If it is on your shortlist, evaluate it directly. The Market Chameleon facts come from its public pages, checked on November 4, 2026.

What a covered call screener has to do

A covered call pairs 100 shares with one short call. A screener earns its place by ranking the calls you could sell against shares you own, or buy for the purpose, on the numbers that matter. Barchart's help page shows one version of the math: time premium over a net debit of stock price minus the call bid, annualized by 365 over days to expiration.

Beyond the headline return, look for the guardrails: distance out of the money, days to expiration, earnings and ex-dividend dates before expiration, and liquidity filters such as open interest and the bid-ask spread. Barchart applies default exclusions of this kind to every screen, including a minimum open interest and a minimum bid.

The last check is your own cost basis. Most screeners assume you buy 100 shares at today's price, so a stock you bought years ago at a different price will have a different real return than the screen shows.

Barchart

Best for: low-cost screening where you want results delivered to your inbox. Barchart is a broad market-data site, and its help center documents a covered call screener that ranks calls by potential return and annualized potential return.

• Strengths: filters you can combine in what the page calls hundreds of combinations; saved screeners; dividend and earnings views; Premier can email the top 10, 25 or 50 results on weekdays and attach a CSV of up to 1,000 results.
• Limits: the help page says options data is delayed, and it ties filter changes to Premier. We did not find an AI connector on the pages we read.
• Price: Premier $29.95/mo, $199.95/yr or $368 for two years; registered users can take a 30-day free trial that rolls into the monthly plan.

Born To Sell

Best for: covered calls and nothing else. Its homepage describes a covered call screener and portfolio tool for stocks and ETFs you already own or want to buy-write, and says the company has screened covered calls since 2010.

• Strengths: filters that update as you adjust them; a dashboard of how much time premium remains in each position; a calendar of earnings and ex-dividend dates for your holdings; rolling calculations and an income goal tracker.
• Limits: it is a covered call tool, not a general strategy scanner, and its homepage states no price (the pricing page does).
• Price: $59.95/mo, $149.95 per quarter or $499.95/yr. Every plan has a 2-week trial; your card is validated at signup and not charged until day 15.

Market Chameleon

Best for: covered call and naked put screening alongside volatility and earnings research. Its Premium page says Premium gives you full control over the 15+ filters on its Covered Call Screener, and it lists a separate naked put screener with 15+ filters.

• Strengths: research on implied volatility term structure and peer-group volatility; earnings dates with implied move calendars; saved filter presets; custom option strategy watchlists; CSV downloads of 25 per rolling 24 hours on Premium.
• Limits: the covered call filters are a Premium feature, downloads are capped at 2 during the trial, and we did not check for a ChatGPT or Claude connector or a mobile app.
• Price: Premium $99/month; a 7-day free trial, with the card charged for the first month if you do not cancel; a free Starter tier.

Option Samurai

Best for: traders who sell covered calls alongside other strategies and want alerts, a journal and many filters in one place. Its homepage says the scanner finds trades in 24 option strategies, including covered calls, with 170 filters, and its features page lists a free covered call screener.

• Strengths: intraday market alerts; a trading journal for options; Monte Carlo scenario simulation; direct trade transmission to brokers; the largest stated filter count of the tools here.
• Limits: its own pages give different filter counts (over 100 on the features page, 170 on the homepage), and we found no ChatGPT or Claude connector on them.
• Price: Beginner $39/mo and Advanced $59/mo when paid annually; 14-day free trial, no credit card.

OptionClaws

Best for: scanning covered calls and 22 other strategies on the whole market, including by asking ChatGPT or Claude. OptionClaws is our product. Its covered call screener ranks candidate calls on quotes refreshed intraday, lets you set floors and ceilings on annualized return, return if called, distance out of the money, days to expiration, probability of expiring worthless, IV rank, market cap, option volume and bid-ask spread, and flags earnings and ex-dividend dates before expiration.

• Strengths: the same scanner on the web, in the iOS and Android apps, and through its connectors for ChatGPT and Claude; saved scans and watchlists; presets for income trades; a trade journal where covered calls on shares you already hold can be logged as just the calls.
• Limits: return figures assume 100 shares bought at the current price, not your actual cost basis; it is a multi-strategy scanner, not a covered-call-only tool; it has no backtesting; it never places trades.
• Price: one plan with every feature. See the pricing page for current terms.

OptionStrat

Best for: building and charting a covered call you already picked, not finding one. OptionStrat's features page describes a strategy builder with over 50 templates, covered call included, and an optimizer that searches trades from a target price or sentiment. It does not describe a market-wide covered call screener.

• Strengths: an interactive payoff chart; saved trades tracked for paper trading; a free tier.
• Limits: the free tier has delayed data and limited access to each feature; we did not find an AI connector on its features or membership pages.
• Price: Live Tools $39.99/mo or $419.99/yr; 7-day trial on paid plans.

PowerOptions

Best for: investors who want to search many strategies and test how a search would have performed. PowerOptions has operated since 1997 per its site, and its store page describes searching the options universe with your own criteria for 23 strategies, with covered calls among them.

• Strengths: backtesting of your search criteria on historical data; saved searches with results by email on a daily or weekly schedule; a portfolio to track real or paper trades.
• Limits: the pages we read did not state a trial, and the store sells courses and add-on services separately.
• Price: subscription from $65/mo.

QuantWheel

Best for: wheel traders who sell cash-secured puts, then covered calls on assigned shares, and want the journal to follow the cost basis. Its products page lists a covered call screener with three filter groups, saved searches and alerts, and its homepage says each covered call lowers your breakeven.

• Strengths: connections to 15+ brokers (some sync-only); a journal with true cost basis; an MCP connection for Claude, ChatGPT and other clients on the Wheel and Quant plans.
• Limits: its pricing page does not say which plans include each screener page, and the focus is the wheel, not a wide strategy list.
• Price: GEX $29/mo, Wheel $49/mo, Quant $79/mo; 7 days for $1.

thinkorswim

Best for: scanning inside a broker platform you already use. The thinkorswim manual describes Option Hacker as a tool for finding single options that match your criteria.

• Strengths: up to 25 filters across stock, option, study and fundamental data; saved scan queries; results can become a watchlist, with alerts on changes.
• Limits: Option Hacker does not scan spreads (the manual points to a separate Spread Hacker), and Schwab's own pages returned an authorization error to us, so we cannot state costs or account requirements.
• Price: not stated on the pages we could open.

How to choose

If you only sell covered calls and want the cheapest screener, start with Barchart's trial. If you want the screener and a position tracker in one tool, Born To Sell is purpose-built for that. If you also sell puts and spreads and want alerts, a journal and many filters, Option Samurai and PowerOptions cover more strategies. If you want volatility and earnings research next to the screener, Market Chameleon Premium covers that at a higher price. If you run the wheel and want the journal to follow your cost basis, look at QuantWheel.

If you would rather ask a question in plain English and get ranked calls back, OptionClaws works inside ChatGPT and Claude. The practical test is the same for every tool: run one scan for a stock you hold with the same floors on annualized return and distance out of the money, then compare the top five results and how each tool treats earnings and dividends. This is general information, not financial advice.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best covered call screener in 2026?

It depends on how you trade. Barchart has the lowest list price we checked among covered call screeners at $29.95/mo, Born To Sell is built only around covered calls and tracking them, and Option Samurai, PowerOptions and OptionClaws screen covered calls alongside other strategies.

Is there a free covered call screener?

Option Samurai's features page lists a free covered call screener, Market Chameleon lists a free Starter tier, and Barchart offers a 30-day Premier trial to registered users. Barchart's help page ties filter changes to Premier, and Market Chameleon's page ties the 15+ covered call filters to Premium. Check each tool's current terms, since free access and trials change often.

What is the best tool for covered call trades if I already own the shares?

Look for a symbol filter or watchlist scan, earnings and ex-dividend flags, and a return figure you can compare to your own cost basis. Barchart's help page suggests a Symbol filter for this, and Born To Sell tracks the positions you open.

Can ChatGPT or Claude find covered calls for me?

Not from memory, because a chat model has no live option chains. OptionClaws gives ChatGPT and Claude a scanner that can rank covered calls, and QuantWheel lists an MCP connection on its Wheel and Quant plans. OptionClaws never places trades, and QuantWheel's order tool is opt-in and off by default.

How is annualized return on a covered call calculated?

Barchart's help page defines potential return as time premium divided by the net debit (stock price minus the call bid), then annualizes it by 365 over days to expiration. Other tools may price at the mid or use your cost basis, so compare definitions before comparing numbers.

Is this list sponsored or ranked?

No. It is written by OptionClaws, which is one of the nine tools, and it is ordered alphabetically. Every fact about another tool comes from that company's own pages, linked in the sources, and we name where others offer more than we do.

Sources

• Barchart help: covered calls screener (checked 2026-11-04)
• Barchart help: Premier benefits and cost (checked 2026-11-04)
• Barchart help: Premier trial (checked 2026-11-04)
• Born To Sell homepage (checked 2026-11-04)
• Born To Sell pricing (checked 2026-11-04)
• Market Chameleon Premium (checked 2026-11-04)
• Market Chameleon Total Access subscription (checked 2026-11-04)
• Option Samurai homepage (checked 2026-11-04)
• Option Samurai features (checked 2026-11-04)
• OptionStrat features (checked 2026-11-04)
• OptionStrat membership and pricing (checked 2026-11-04)
• PowerOptions store (checked 2026-11-04)
• PowerOptions FAQ (checked 2026-11-04)
• QuantWheel homepage (checked 2026-11-04)
• QuantWheel pricing (checked 2026-11-04)
• QuantWheel products (checked 2026-11-04)
• QuantWheel Wheel MCP (checked 2026-11-04)
• thinkorswim manual: Option Hacker (checked 2026-11-04)

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