What should I record for every covered call?

Ticker, share count, cost basis, strike, premium per share, contracts, trade date, expiry date, fees, and the outcome at close — expired, assigned, bought back or sold. Everything else can be derived from those fields.

Can I track covered calls in Excel or Google Sheets?

Yes for a handful of positions. The failure point is rolling: a rolled call is not a new trade, so its premium must flow into the same holding's running breakeven. Most spreadsheets end up treating each roll as a separate row, which quietly corrupts breakeven and every return figure derived from it.

How do I calculate my adjusted cost basis after rolling?

Adjusted cost basis = original cost basis − (all premiums received ÷ shares) + (all buyback costs ÷ shares). Each roll adds both a credit and a debit, and both must be counted.

What is the single most useful covered call metric?

Premium yield per week on capital committed. It normalises weekly, monthly and quarterly writes onto one scale so you can see which positions are genuinely paying you for the risk.

How to track covered calls

Most covered call writers have no idea whether the strategy is beating simply holding the shares — not because the maths is hard, but because the record keeping falls apart the first time they roll a position.

1. Record these fields, every time

Ticker and exchange (currency matters for ASX and other non-US holdings)
Shares owned and cost basis per share
Strike price and number of contracts
Premium per share and total premium received
Trade date and expiry date
Commissions and fees
Outcome: expired worthless, assigned, rolled, bought back, shares sold

Record on the day you trade. Reconstructing a rolled position from a broker statement six months later is where most tracking efforts die.

2. Derive the metrics that matter

Net premium collected: All premiums received less all buyback costs and fees, per holding and lifetime.
Adjusted breakeven: Cost basis less net premium per share. The number that decides whether a position is really profitable.
Premium yield per week: Premium ÷ capital ÷ days × 7. The fairest comparison across different expiries.
Return if exercised: Strike less cost basis, plus every premium collected across all rolls, over capital committed.
Days to expiry: Sorted ascending, this is your weekly action list.
Distance to strike: How far the stock is from being called away, in percent.
Outcome mix: Exercised, expired, breakeven and losing trades as a share of all closed positions.

3. Handle rolls correctly

A roll is one event on one holding, not two trades. You buy back the existing call — a debit — and sell a new one — a credit. Both belong to the same running total against the same shares. If your record shows the old call closed at a loss and the new call as a fresh position, your reported per-trade win rate looks worse than reality while your breakeven looks better than reality.

Worked roll

Cost basis $100. Sold $105 call for $1.80 → breakeven $98.20.
Stock at $107 near expiry. Buy the call back for $2.60 → breakeven $100.80.
Sell a $110 call 45 days out for $3.10 → breakeven $97.70.
Net premium across the position: $1.80 − $2.60 + $3.10 = $2.30 per share, and the cap has moved from $105 to $110.

4. Spreadsheet or software?

A spreadsheet is fine when

You hold one or two tickers
You rarely roll
Everything is in one currency
You enjoy maintaining formulas

You have outgrown it when

Rolls have made breakeven hard to trust
You paste prices in by hand
You have missed an expiry
You cannot say which tickers have actually paid you

OptionHarvest does all of the above automatically — rolling breakeven, daily prices, expiry countdowns, automatic assignment detection and a closed-trade log. See the covered call tracker or the portfolio tracker.