Apple is in a quiet stretch between earnings windows, trading a few percent below its 200-day average. Selling the 220 call one month out collects a meaningful premium while still leaving ~3.5% of upside to the strike — a textbook covered-call setup on a name most readers already own.
Apple Inc. · Consumer tech · Expires May 22, 2026
The numbers
Annualised yield
17.8%
Spot price
$212.40
Strike
$220.00
Premium collected
$3.10
Days to expiry
30d
Premium yield
1.46%
Break-even
$209.30
Max profit
$10.70 / share
Payoff at expiry. Below $209.30 you're losing money on the whole position. Above $220.00 the stock gets called away and your profit caps at $10.70 per share.
What happens at expiry
Three ways this ends, month from now:
Stock stays roughly flat (between break-even and the strike) — the call expires worthless, you keep the $3.10/share premium, and you still own your shares. This is the case covered-call sellers are implicitly rooting for.
Stock closes above $220.00 — your shares get called away at the strike. You still net $10.70/share in total profit (premium plus the run to strike). You don't get the upside beyond that; that's the cost of the premium you collected.
Stock drops below $209.30 — the call expires worthless (good), but your shares are down more than the premium softened (not great). You keep the premium; it partially offsets the loss on the stock.
Educational example. Prices as of April 22, 2026. Not a recommendation, not personalised advice — think of it as a worked case study, the way you'd see one in a classroom.
