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Engine 01 · Options income · IBKRSteady premium, automated.
36.9% a year.
The oldest income strategy in the market, automated on Interactive Brokers: collect options premium on the S&P 500 future and let time decay do the work. On the $28,000 of risk capital one contract needs, that averaged 36.9% a year — 3.07% a month — from January 2020 through September 2026. Every trade is published below.
You get paid for being patient
When you sell an option, someone pays you a premium today to carry a risk they don't want. Most of the time that risk never materialises, and the premium stays with you. Doing that selectively, with strict exits, is the whole business.
Read the market
Before any position, the engine checks the conditions on the S&P 500 future against its own filters.
Keep a wide margin
It only sells premium where the market needs a substantial move before the trade is ever in danger.
Or no trade at all
If the conditions aren't there, it stands aside entirely rather than forcing a position.
Take profit early
It banks most of the premium and exits, rather than squeezing the last few dollars and carrying the risk.
It refuses more weeks than it trades
It stands aside more weeks than it trades. Doing nothing is a position.
It never takes assignment
If a position turns against it, the engine closes it well before expiry. Zero assignments in 283 trades — you never wake up holding a future you didn't plan for.
One position at a time
No stacking, no martingale, no averaging down. A single open position, always — so your exposure is something you can state in one sentence.
Since 2020, published in full
January 2020 to September 2026. One ES contract against $28,000 of risk capital, commissions on both the option and the future, sold at the bid rather than the mid — the pessimistic assumption, not the flattering one. The clock starts in 2020: 2018 and 2019 traded far fewer weeks, so including them would average a half-speed engine with a full-speed one.
| Year | Positions | Net P&L | % of risk capital | Win rate | Max drawdown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 37 | +$8,812 | +31.5% | 97.3% | −$6,056 |
| 2021 | 40 | +$10,912 | +39.0% | 100% | −$2,244 |
| 2022 | 40 | +$10,192 | +36.4% | 92.5% | −$3,588 |
| 2023 | 30 | +$6,992 | +25.0% | 96.7% | −$1,891 |
| 2024 | 32 | +$8,224 | +29.4% | 96.9% | −$2,808 |
| 2025 | 42 | +$11,170 | +39.9% | 97.6% | −$5,912 |
| 2026 | 32 | +$13,242 | +47.3% | 96.9% | −$1,608 |
| Total | 253 | +$69,546 | +248% | 96.8% | −$6,056 |
Percentages are the year's profit against the $28,000 of risk capital one contract requires — not against a larger account that happens to hold it. The table starts in 2020; 2026 covers January to September.
$28,000 → $199,412 if you add size as the account grows
Everything above is one contract, start to finish. Traders rarely leave it there: the usual rule is to add one contract for every $28,000 of equity. Replaying the same 253 trades under that rule turns $28,000 into $199,412 between 2020 and 2026.
This is a simulation, not a backtest result. It assumes every extra contract fills at the same price as the first, which gets less true as size grows, and it assumes you keep adding through the drawdowns. We show it because you will do the maths anyway — not as a promise.
What a bad week actually looks like
A 96.8% win rate sounds like a machine that never loses. It isn't. Selling options means many small wins and occasionally a loss several times bigger than a win. Here are the real numbers — the ones most vendors hide.
The losses are bigger than the wins
Average winner: $323. Average loser: −$1,390. That ratio is normal for this strategy — the edge comes from winning far more often than it loses, not from the size of each win.
The worst single trade
March 2025: −$4,341 realised, and the position was −$7,962 underwater at its worst point before the exit. In February 2020 one position showed −$12,875 open before closing at −$3,666.
Eight trades out of 253 went wrong
Every one of them was closed before expiry rather than assigned, rather than left to turn into a position you never asked for. The 245 that worked collected far more than they cost.
It will have a losing month
If you start in a month where the engine sits out most of the time and the one trade it takes goes wrong, you will be down. The multi-year record is what matters, not your first thirty days.
We publish this because you'll find it anyway the first time the market gaps down. Knowing the shape of the loss in advance is what lets you size the position correctly — and sizing is the only thing standing between a drawdown and a blown account.
Everything needed to run it the way it was tested
- The automated engine for Interactive Brokers (IBKR), with the entry filters and exit rules
- The settings file used to produce the backtest on this page
- The pre-trade checklist — what to verify before the engine arms
- Sizing guidance for full ES and micro ES, so the drawdown fits your account
- The full ICT indicator toolkit, included in the same plan
- Private ticket support for installation and settings
30 days to change your mind, refunded in full. Checkout opens on Whop shortly — the button takes you to the Discord to reserve your seat at launch pricing.
Run it on simulation first
IBKR gives you a free paper-trading account. Run the engine on it for a few weeks, watch it stand aside when it doesn't like the conditions, see a position open and close. When it has become boring, fund it.
We'd rather you take six weeks to trust it than six days to regret it — and the 30-day refund window is there precisely so that costs you nothing.
Start collecting premium this month
Join the Discord to see the engine's trade journal, ask anything, and take the free ORB strategy with you while you decide.