Covered calls on MSFT
Microsoft Corporation was trading at $518.36 when this page was last refreshed on September 30, 2026. 12 out-of-the-money MSFT calls sat in the 0.15 to 0.25 delta band that covered call writers work in, paying $222 to $498 a contract. 3 of them came back scored, and the app would have ranked those and shown you the top few.
Numbers on this page come from a snapshot taken on September 30, 2026. They are not live quotes and are not refreshed when you load the page.
| Expiry | Strike | Bid / ask | Premium | Annualized | Keep odds | Break-even | OI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 5 5d | $530.00 | $2.13 / $2.31 | $222 | 31.3% | 80% | $532.22 | 343 |
| October 9 9d | $535.00 | $3.00 / $3.45 | $323 | 25.2% | 78% | $538.23 | 1,739 |
| October 16 16d | $545.00 | $3.00 / $3.25 | $313 | 13.8% | 82% | $548.13 | 20,134 |
| October 23 23d | $550.00 | $3.65 / $4.15 | $390 | 11.9% | 81% | $553.90 | 1,670 |
| October 30 30d | $570.00 | $4.70 / $5.25 | $498 | 11.7% | 82% | $574.98 | 1,455 |
One row per expiration: the out-of-the-money strike closest to the middle of the delta band, which is the strike you would actually be looking at on that expiry. Break-even on a covered call is your own cost basis minus the premium, not the strike minus the premium, so the column above is the strike-side break-even and yours depends on what you paid for the shares.
What the premium is priced off
At-the-money implied vol is 34%. Rich, and richness has a reason: something in the next few weeks is expected to move this stock, and you are the one selling the insurance against it.
Can you actually get filled
Median bid-ask spread is 11.1% of the mid, widening to 13.9% on the worst strike here. Workable, but do not send a market order. Open interest is deep, 1,670 contracts at the median strike, so getting out early is not a problem.
Dates that matter in this window
Earnings land inside the 45-day window. That is the one date that reliably breaks a premium-selling trade: the stock gaps, the strike you picked on a probability model turns out to have been picked on the wrong distribution, and the vol you sold collapses to reward the buyer instead of you. The engine deducts heavily for it. The stock pays about 0.7% a year, and no ex-dividend date was confirmed inside this window.
What the annualized column hides
The best annualized number in this ladder is 31.3%, on the $530.00 strike expiring October 5. It is $222 of actual cash. It annualizes well because it is a 5-day contract, and annualizing a two-week trade assumes you find twenty-six more like it, at the same premium, with the same risk. You will not.
If it gets called away
Take the $570.00 strike expiring October 30. You collect $498 up front. If MSFT finishes above $570.00 your 100 shares are sold there, and the 10.0% move from $518.36 up to the strike is yours as well. Everything above it is not. The model puts the odds of keeping the premium without being assigned at about 82%, which is the whole point of writing that far out.
The number nobody checks is the cost basis. If you paid more than $570.00 for these shares, that strike locks in a loss on the stock, and $498 of premium does not repair it. A covered call is only a good trade at a strike you would genuinely accept selling at.
Questions people actually ask
What is a good strike for a covered call on MSFT?
The strikes above are the ones in the 0.15 to 0.25 delta band, which is where premium sellers targeting roughly an 80% chance of keeping the premium tend to sit. On the September 30, 2026 snapshot that meant $530.00 out to $570.00, depending on how far out you go. The right one for you is the lowest strike you would still be happy selling your shares at.
How much can you make selling covered calls on MSFT?
The best annualized figure in the ladder above was 31.3%, and the cash it represents was $222 for one contract. Annualized numbers assume you repeat the trade all year at the same premium, which nobody does. Treat them as a way to compare expiries, not as a forecast.
Does OptionsKing recommend selling calls on MSFT?
No. This page is a dated snapshot of the chain, not a recommendation, and the app has no opinion to offer beyond an ordering. It scores every in-band strike and shows you the best few by rank, with no minimum score anywhere, so at the last refresh 3 of the 12 in-band strikes were scored and the top few would have reached you whatever those scores were. See how the scoring works and the full disclaimer.
Read this as a snapshot, not a suggestion. It is where the MSFT chain stood on September 30, 2026, and every price in it has already changed.