name: scanner-pmcc description: Scan stocks for Poor Man's Covered Call (PMCC) suitability. Analyzes LEAPS and short call options for delta, liquidity, spread, IV, yield, trend direction, and earnings proximity. Use when user asks about PMCC candidates, diagonal spreads, or LEAPS strategies. dependencies: ["trading-skills"]
PMCC Scanner
Finds optimal Poor Man's Covered Call setups by scoring symbols on option chain quality.
What is PMCC?
Buy deep ITM LEAPS call (delta ~0.80) + Sell short-term OTM call (delta ~0.20) against it. Cheaper alternative to covered calls.
Instructions
Note: If
uvis not installed orpyproject.tomlis not found, replaceuv run pythonwithpythonin all commands below.
uv run python scripts/scan.py SYMBOLS [options]
Arguments
SYMBOLS- Comma-separated tickers or path to JSON file from bullish scanner--min-leaps-days- Minimum LEAPS expiration in days (default: 270 = 9 months)--leaps-delta- Target LEAPS delta (default: 0.80)--short-delta- Target short call delta (default: 0.20)--output- Save results to JSON file
Scoring System (max possible: 14, range: -4 to 14)
| Category | Condition | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Delta Accuracy | LEAPS within ±0.05 | +2 |
| LEAPS within ±0.10 | +1 | |
| Short within ±0.05 | +1 | |
| Short within ±0.10 | +0.5 | |
| Liquidity | LEAPS vol+OI > 100 | +1 |
| LEAPS vol+OI > 20 | +0.5 | |
| Short vol+OI > 500 | +1 | |
| Short vol+OI > 100 | +0.5 | |
| Spread | LEAPS spread < 5% | +1 |
| LEAPS spread < 10% | +0.5 | |
| Short spread < 10% | +1 | |
| Short spread < 20% | +0.5 | |
| IV Level | 25-50% (ideal) | +2 |
| 20-60% | +1 | |
| Yield | Annual > 50% | +2 |
| Annual > 30% | +1 | |
| Trend | Price > SMA50 | +1 / -1 |
| RSI > 50 | +0.5 / -0.5 | |
| MACD > signal | +0.5 / -0.5 | |
| Earnings | Next earnings > 45 days | +1.0 |
| Earnings within 45 days | -1.0 | |
| Earnings within short expiry | -2.0 |
Output
Returns JSON with:
criteria- Scan parameters usedresults- Array sorted by score:symbol,price,iv_pct,pmcc_score,max_possible_score(always 14)leaps- expiry, strike, delta, bid/ask, spread%, volume, OIshort- expiry, strike, delta, bid/ask, spread%, volume, OImetrics- net_debit, short_yield%, annual_yield%, capital_requiredscore_breakdown- every scoring component as a<name>_delta(float) +<name>(explanation string) pair:- Base:
leaps_delta,short_delta,leaps_liquidity,short_liquidity,leaps_spread,short_spread,iv,yield - Trend:
trend_delta,trend(per-indicator dict) - Earnings:
earnings_delta,earnings - All
_deltavalues sum topmcc_score
- Base:
errors- Symbols that failed (no options, insufficient data)
Examples
# Scan specific symbols
uv run python scripts/scan.py AAPL,MSFT,GOOGL,NVDA
# Use output from bullish scanner
uv run python scripts/scan.py bullish_results.json
# Custom delta targets
uv run python scripts/scan.py AAPL,MSFT --leaps-delta 0.70 --short-delta 0.15
# Longer LEAPS (1 year minimum)
uv run python scripts/scan.py AAPL,MSFT --min-leaps-days 365
# Save results
uv run python scripts/scan.py AAPL,MSFT,GOOGL --output pmcc_results.json
Key Constraints
- Short strike must be above LEAPS strike
- Options with bid = 0 (illiquid) are skipped
- Moderate IV (25-50%) scores highest
Interpretation
- Score > 12: Excellent candidate (strong structure + bullish trend + clear earnings runway)
- Score 10-12: Good candidate
- Score 6-10: Acceptable with caveats
- Score < 6: Poor structure, bearish trend, or earnings risk
max_possible_scoreis always 14 — usepmcc_score / max_possible_scoreto gauge how close a candidate is to perfect
Dependencies
numpypandasscipyyfinance
Timezone
All timestamps and time-based calculations must use the America/New_York timezone. All JSON output must include generated_at (NY time string) and data_delay fields.