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LLY wheel backtest snapshot

Public recipe: 10 DTE / 2% OTM puts and calls, ~2-year simulated window.

Simulated, not collected: this run produced $79,237 in premium over 2024-11-08 to 2026-11-06.

Live broker sync, true cost basis after rolls. No card.

Premium
$79237.36
Total P&L
$19237.36
Assign %
31.0%
Call-away %
42.9%
Cycles
9
Trades
50

Buy & hold vs the wheel

Nov 8, 2024 – Nov 6, 2026

Buy & hold finished $33008.64 ahead of the wheel (earned more: $52246.00 vs $19237.36).

Buy & hold
Buy 100 shares and hold
Wheel strategy
Puts → calls · keep premiums as cash
Profit or loss$52246.00$19237.36
Largest drop$30407.00$24675.81

Try this ticker in the backtest

This page is one fixed recipe (10 DTE / 2% OTM). The interactive tool lets you change DTE, OTM, or dates.

Why this result

This simulation ran 2024-11-08 to 2026-11-06 (50 trades, 9 cycles).

Simulated premium was $79,237. Simulated stock / assignment P&L was −$60,000. Combined realized P&L was $19,237.

Puts were assigned on 31.0% of put trades (9 of 29). Calls were assigned away on 42.9% of call trades (9 of 21).

This simulation’s wheel P&L ($19,237) trailed buy-and-hold P&L ($52,246) on the stored window.

Wheel drawdown was $24,676 on the engine's stored basis; measured as the deepest fall from a P&L peak on the daily P&L series it was $24,676, from the 2025-01-30 peak to the 2025-05-23 trough, and got back to that peak on 2026-01-07. Buy-and-hold drawdown was $30,407 on the engine's stored basis; measured as the deepest fall from a P&L peak on the daily P&L series it was $30,407, from the 2025-03-03 peak to the 2025-08-08 trough, and got back to that peak on 2025-11-06.

On the stored daily series the wheel was ahead of buy-and-hold on 86 of 500 days (17.2%). Its widest lead was $11,606 on 2025-08-08; its widest deficit was −$39,408 on 2026-11-04.

Wheel P&L peaked at $19,237 on 2026-10-23 and bottomed at −$19,566 on 2025-05-23. Buy-and-hold peaked at $58,645 on 2026-11-04 and bottomed at −$20,589 on 2025-08-08.

Of 50 priced entries, 6 used Black-Scholes fills from implied volatility, 26 used historical option bars, and 18 used Black-Scholes fills from realized volatility. The engine flagged this run as using modeled fills.

Month by month

MonthWheel P&LWheel change in monthBuy-and-hold P&LWheel minus holdWheel below peakHold below peak
2024-11$122—−$3,619$3,741$988$3,709
2024-12−$2,050−$2,172−$5,954$3,904$5,621$6,044
2025-01−$1,713$337−$2,046$333$6,823$2,136
2025-02$1,735$3,449$8,909−$7,174$3,374$0
2025-03−$3,236−$4,971−$563−$2,673$8,346$10,381
2025-04−$6,355−$3,119$6,741−$13,096$11,465$3,077
2025-05−$15,920−$9,565−$9,387−$6,533$21,030$19,205
2025-06−$12,844$3,076−$5,201−$7,643$17,954$15,019
2025-07−$11,173$1,671−$9,147−$2,026$16,283$18,965
2025-08−$11,488−$315−$9,896−$1,592$16,598$19,714
2025-09−$6,731$4,757−$6,854$123$11,840$16,672
2025-10−$5,901$830$3,132−$9,033$11,010$6,686
2025-11−$1,952$3,949$24,393−$26,345$7,061$3,447
2025-12$2,596$4,548$24,314−$21,718$2,513$3,526
2026-01$2,697$101$20,561−$17,864$3,240$7,279
2026-02$7,381$4,684$22,045−$14,664$2,313$5,795
2026-03−$1,666−$9,047$8,823−$10,489$11,360$19,017
2026-04$6,212$7,878$10,306−$4,094$3,482$17,534
2026-05$5,202−$1,010$27,346−$22,144$6,437$2,180
2026-06$8,831$3,629$36,789−$27,958$2,808$3,050
2026-07$14,080$5,249$31,730−$17,650$0$8,672
2026-08$17,830$3,750$32,519−$14,689$0$12,361
2026-09$13,550−$4,280$32,554−$19,004$4,280$12,326
2026-10$19,237$5,687$58,600−$39,363$0$0
2026-11$19,237$0$52,246−$33,009$0$6,399

Cash-secured puts

Trades
29
Assignments
9 (31.0%)
Simulated premium
$47,205
Avg premium
$1,628

Covered calls

Trades
21
Called away
9 (42.9%)
Simulated premium
$32,032
Stock / assignment P&L
−$60,000

How LLY compares

18 of 45 snapshots show simulated wheel P&L above buy-and-hold over their windows. LLY is not one of them.

Simulated premium equals 411.9% of the combined wheel P&L here; the median across snapshots with positive wheel P&L is 238.8%.

Compared with its defensive, healthcare and income peers HYG, TLT, UNH and XLV, LLY sits above the peer median put assignment rate of 29.1%. 2 of those 4 peers had simulated wheel P&L above buy-and-hold, while LLY did not.

The separate 21-Day Rule study for LLY uses a longer 35 DTE recipe, so it is not additive to this snapshot. On that study the managed arm finished -47.9 pp behind holding to expiry, against a median of +2.0 pp across tickers.

MetricLLYFamily medianRank (highest first unless noted)
Put assignment rate31.0%31.0%23rd of 45
Simulated premium$79,237$10,1281st of 45
Wheel P&L$19,237$2,8284th of 45
Buy-and-hold P&L$52,246$3,9011st of 45
Wheel minus buy-and-hold−$33,009−$49545th of 45
TickerPut assignmentPremiumWheel P&LBuy-and-hold P&LOutcome
LLY31.0%$79,237$19,237$52,246Wheel behind
HYG12.1%$382$382−$257Wheel ahead
TLT33.3%$1,277−$223−$1,057Wheel ahead
UNH32.1%$32,256−$25,244−$22,166Wheel behind
XLV26.1%$3,529$2,029$3,462Wheel behind

LLY 21-Day Rule study — the other published study on this ticker.

Problem

A snapshot is not a custom backtest

One fixed recipe: no price tape, no trade list, and model fills where quotes were missing

Solution

What this simulation produced

Window

Requested 2024-11-08–2026-11-08; actual 2024-11-08–2026-11-06.

Limitations

Premiums may include model fills (BSM/IV) when market quotes were missing.

Pricing sources: 6 IV / 26 bar / 18 HV

  • Simulated public wheel tool: no commissions, fees, or slippage.
  • Assignment and call-away settled on underlying close at expiry (not option mid marks mid-life).
  • Some entry premiums used synthetic BSM pricing (IV or realized vol) rather than historical option bars.

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about getting started

Did LLY collect this premium?

No. The $79,237 is simulated premium, not cash collected.

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Live broker sync, true cost basis after rolls. No card.