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 uv is not installed or pyproject.toml is not found, replace uv run python with python in 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 used
• results - Array sorted by score:
  • symbol, price, iv_pct, pmcc_score, max_possible_score (always 14)
  • leaps - expiry, strike, delta, bid/ask, spread%, volume, OI
  • short - expiry, strike, delta, bid/ask, spread%, volume, OI
  • metrics - net_debit, short_yield%, annual_yield%, capital_required
  • score_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 _delta values sum to pmcc_score
• 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_score is always 14 — use pmcc_score / max_possible_score to gauge how close a candidate is to perfect

Dependencies

• numpy
• pandas
• scipy
• yfinance