IBKR Cash Secured Puts: How to Sell on TWS (2026)

To sell a cash-secured put on Interactive Brokers, you need the options level IBKR lists short puts under (Level 3), and strike × 100 in cash for each contract. In TWS you open the Option Chain, click the bid of the put you want to sell, set a limit price, check the margin impact and transmit.

Here's the short version, with the details for each step further down:

1. Check your options permission. IBKR lists "Short Put" under Level 3.
2. Keep the cash aside. Strike × 100 per contract, so $5,000 for one $50 put.
3. Pick the stock and strike before you open TWS. Only sell puts on stock you'd be fine owning at that strike.
4. Open the Option Chain and choose an expiration.
5. Click the put's bid. That creates a sell order.
6. Set a limit price, quantity and time in force, check the margin impact, and transmit.
7. Track it until it expires, you close it, or you're assigned.

Wherever a detail is IBKR-specific, I've linked IBKR's own documentation so you can check it hasn't changed.

Watch the short

Before you log in

Check your options permission

IBKR has four options levels, and its options trading permissions page (last updated October 2025) lists covered calls under Level 1 and "Short Put" under Level 3. A lot of older guides, including an earlier version of this one, say Level 2. IBKR's own list says otherwise.

To request a change, go to Client Portal, open the user menu (the head-and-shoulders icon), then Settings > Trading > Trading Permissions, and pick the options level. IBKR decides whether to approve it, so check what your account actually shows. The same page notes that options levels don't apply to IB-IN or IB-CA accounts.

Keep strike × 100 in cash

A cash-secured put means you've set aside enough cash to buy the shares if you're assigned. IBKR's glossary entry uses the same example I'd use: a $50 strike on a 100-share contract means reserving $5,000.

In a margin account, TWS can show a requirement smaller than the full strike value because a margin account lets you borrow against the position.

If you want the trade to be cash-secured, leave the full amount untouched yourself.

In an IRA the question mostly answers itself, since IBKR's IRA page says IRAs can't borrow cash or carry a debit balance, so the cash has to be there.

Pick the stock first

Browsing option chains for the fattest premium is how people end up owning stock they never wanted.

Decide on the ticker and a price you'd happily pay before you open TWS.

Our cash-secured put scanner does the chain-browsing part. It lists puts by strike, distance out of the money, days to expiry, premium per contract and return, so you arrive in TWS with a shortlist.

Results table from the Days to Expiry cash-secured put scanner, showing QQQ puts with strike, OTM %, DTE, premium, ROI and assignment odds

Days to Expiry's cash-secured put scanner (public page, default SPY/QQQ settings, captured 2026-09-24). Rows are live quotes at capture time, not recommendations.

If you'd rather start from a basket of stocks and a risk style, the wizard below runs a similar, shorter screen.

Placing the order in TWS

1. Open the Option Chain

In the Mosaic layout of TWS, click New Window in the top left and choose Option Chain. In Classic TWS it's under Trading Tools > Option Chain. Type the ticker and press Enter. (IBKR guide)

Calls sit to the left of the strike column and puts to the right. The settings at the top control which expirations show (weeklies, quarterlies) and how many strikes.

2. Choose the expiration

Before you settle on an expiration tab, check whether the company reports earnings before that date. A report before expiration can gap the stock through your strike overnight, and a comfortable out-of-the-money put becomes an in-the-money one before you can react.

How far out to go is its own question. The cash-secured puts playbook covers the trade-offs between short and longer expirations.

3. Click the bid to sell

On the put side, find your strike and click its bid price. IBKR's guide spells out that clicking the bid creates a sell order and clicking the ask creates a buy order, so this is the one click to get right. The Order Entry panel fills in with that contract.

If your chain layout shows Delta, look at it for each strike. Delta is roughly the market's estimate of the odds that the put finishes in the money, which makes it a quick way to compare strikes.

4. Set the order

In Order Entry:

• Action: SELL. Double-check this, since a buy order on the same row looks almost identical.
• Quantity: number of contracts. Each one covers 100 shares.
• Order type: LMT (limit). A market order on an option with a wide bid-ask spread can fill well below what the put is worth.
• Limit price: start near the midpoint between bid and ask. If it doesn't fill, lower it in small steps toward the bid.
• Time in force: DAY cancels at the close, GTC stays working until it fills or you cancel it.

5. Check the margin impact, then transmit

Preview the order before you send it. In Mosaic, click the Advanced icon in Order Entry and choose Check Margin (or Performance/Margin for options). In Classic TWS, right-click and choose Check Margin Impact. The preview shows the order description, commission and margin impact. From there you can Transmit or close it and edit. (IBKR guide)

If you prefer to work from one screen, OptionTrader does the same thing (New Window > OptionTrader in Mosaic). Click the put side and then the bid to add a sell leg. (IBKR guide)

On IBKR Mobile

Tap the stock in a watchlist to open Quote Details, then the Options tab, and pick an expiration. (IBKR guide) From there you choose the put and create a sell order, with the same limit-order habits as above.

Check the return before you transmit

Three formulas cover it, all per contract:

Return on cash    = (premium × 100 − commission) / (strike × 100)
Annualized return = return on cash × 365 / days to expiration
Breakeven         = strike − premium

Say you sell a $50 put for $0.60 with 30 days to expiration, so you collect $60. On IBKR Pro that's one contract at $0.65, which is under the $1.00 order minimum, so the commission is $1.00.

That leaves $59 on $5,000 of cash, a 1.18% return, or about 14.4% annualized. Breakeven is $49.40.

Exchange, clearing and regulatory fees come on top and aren't in that sum. The cash-secured put calculator runs the same numbers for any strike, premium and expiration.

What IBKR charges

From IBKR's options commissions page, for US options at up to 10,000 contracts a month on IBKR Pro:

The minimum is $1.00 per order. IBKR Lite (US residents only) charges a flat $0.65 per contract on the first 1,000 contracts a month. The same page says commissions aren't charged for US exercise and assignment, so getting assigned doesn't cost an extra commission.

After the fill

Once the order fills, the portfolio view in TWS shows the put as a short position (a negative quantity). Your cash goes up by the premium minus the commission. The cash you set aside stays in the account, but it's spoken for until the put is gone.

From here there are four ways it ends.

It expires out of the money. You keep the premium and the obligation disappears.

You close it early. Buy the same put back. Your profit is what you sold it for minus what you paid, minus commissions.

Plenty of sellers close once most of the premium is gone rather than holding for the last few cents.

You roll it. Buy back the current put and sell a later one, usually at the same or a lower strike. You can do this as two orders or one combination order. Rolling cash-secured puts covers when a roll makes sense and when it only postpones a loss.

You're assigned. That gets its own section below.

The earnings check from step 2 applies while the trade is open too. If a report date gets announced inside your expiration, decide ahead of time whether you'll close, roll or accept assignment.

Assignment at IBKR

If the put is assigned, the option is removed from your account and you buy 100 shares per contract at the strike, paid from the cash you set aside. Assignment is most likely when the put finishes in the money at expiration.

Assignment can also come earlier, because US equity options are American-style. IBKR's exercise and assignment lesson notes that sellers can be assigned before expiration. The lesson names upcoming corporate actions, such as dividends, and interest rates as things that change how likely that is. A deep in-the-money put is the usual candidate.

For US taxes, IRS Publication 550 sets the rules for option writers:

• Put expires: the premium is a short-term capital gain.
• Put is assigned: you reduce your cost basis in the shares by the premium. Your holding period starts on the assignment date, not the day you sold the put.
• You buy it back: the difference is a short-term gain or loss.

With the $50 put above, assignment means paying $5,000 for 100 shares with a $4,940 cost basis ($49.40 a share), before commission. After assignment you can hold the shares, sell them, or sell covered calls against them, which is the wheel strategy.

Tracking it after TWS

TWS is good at placing the order.

It's less good at telling you, three months and a few rolls later, how much premium a position has actually brought in, or what your real cost basis is after an assignment.

I built Days to Expiry partly for that. The Interactive Brokers options tracker reads your trade history through IBKR's Flex Query and shows premium collected, open positions sorted by days to expiry, and assignments in one place. The Flex Query guide covers the setup on the IBKR side.

Common mistakes

• Selling puts on stock you don't want. The premium looks best on the names you'd least like to own after a drop.
• Using margin without meaning to. If TWS shows a requirement below strike × 100, the trade isn't cash-secured unless you keep the rest aside.
• Clicking the ask. That's a buy order. Check the action says SELL.
• Market orders on wide spreads. Use limit orders and work the price.
• Ignoring the earnings date. Check it before you pick the expiration, and again while the trade is open.
• Forgetting the order minimum. On one cheap contract, the $1.00 minimum is a bigger share of the premium than the headline $0.65 suggests.

Selling a cash-secured put on IBKR takes a few clicks once the permission and the cash are sorted. Most of the work is in choosing the stock and strike before you log in, and in keeping track of the position after the fill.

Related Articles

• Cash-Secured Puts Playbook: DTE Optimization & Assignment Risk
• Best Stocks for Selling Cash-Secured Puts
• Rolling Cash-Secured Puts: When and How to Adjust
• Sell Put Option Example: An AAPL Walkthrough
• Cash-Secured Puts vs Covered Calls
• Wheel Strategy Guide
• Selling Cash-Secured Puts on Thinkorswim
• Interactive Brokers Flex Query: Automate Your Portfolio Data Import
• True Cost Basis After Rolls
• Trading Options in an IRA
• Interactive Brokers Tax Statement Guide for Options Traders
• Put Credit Spreads: Risk-Defined Income Strategy