Meridian Screen is a systematic research tool that reviews thousands of publicly listed companies and surfaces those best suited to the wheel options strategy — selling covered calls and cash-secured puts on stable, profitable businesses.
The wheel is a three-phase options income strategy designed for stocks you are comfortable owning:
The strategy generates income through repeated premium collection. It works best on stocks that are not highly volatile, are unlikely to collapse, and have liquid options markets — exactly what this screen identifies.
Every company in the universe passes through a three-stage filter before a Wheel score is calculated:
Stage 1 — Profitability gate: Net income > 0 and operating cash flow > 0. Companies losing money are excluded outright — the wheel requires a stock you are willing to hold, and holding a loss-maker is too risky.
Stage 2 — Revenue stability gate: Revenue must not be in structural decline. Stable or growing revenue is required — secular revenue decline creates share-price tail risk that erodes premium income.
Stage 3 — Options gate: The stock must have listed weekly or monthly options with sufficient open interest. No options = no wheel.
Stocks passing all three filters receive a Wheel score (0–100) based on five weighted components:
Fundamental safety averages the quality score (ROIC, ROE, FCF margin, leverage, interest coverage, accruals), valuation score (forward P/E, EV/EBITDA, FCF yield, price/sales, PEG), and margin stability. Volatility profile targets the sweet spot of 25–45% realised 30-day vol — enough to generate meaningful premium without excessive gap risk. Earnings proximity penalises stocks reporting in the next 21 days (IV crush risk). Price level favours the $15–$100 range for capital efficiency. Stocks lose 8 points per accounting quality flag.
The Wheel Scanner evaluates individual option contracts from the top-ranked companies. Each contract receives an Opportunity Score (0–100):
Delta is calculated via Black-Scholes from the contract's implied volatility. The target delta zone is 0.20–0.40 — this balances meaningful premium income against the probability of assignment. Contracts with DTE 4–32 days are scanned.
The Screen data is refreshed by running the pipeline, typically daily on trading days. The Wheel Scanner prices are point-in-time at the moment the scan was run — options prices change continuously during market hours so the Scanner data shown here is a snapshot, not a live feed. Always verify current prices before placing any trade.
Meridian Screen is not a return forecast. A high Wheel score means the company has characteristics associated with suitability for options income strategies — it does not predict future stock price direction, dividend payments, or options premium levels. Past screening results have not been independently audited for predictive accuracy.