UAL Covered Call
Every out-of-the-money UAL call expiring Oct 23, 2026, priced from the settled chain: what it pays, what it yields, and where the trade stops making money. The richest right now is the $109.00 strike at 5.5% over 36 days.
Open interest and pricing as of the close on 2026-09-16. Recomputed every morning before the open.
UAL covered call candidates — Oct 23, 2026, 36 days out
Strikes are picked by distance from the $106.30 share price, not by delta — the published chain carries premiums and open interest, not greeks, and inventing a delta here would be inventing data. Premium is the bid/ask midpoint where both sides quote, otherwise the last trade. The chain artifact publishes the six nearest expirations, so this is the longest one listed — 36 days out. Annualising anything shorter than a week says more about compounding arithmetic than about the trade, so those cells stay blank.
| Strike | % OTM | Premium | Yield | Annualised | Break-even | If assigned | OI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $109.00 | 2.5% | $5.80 | 5.5% | 55.3% | $100.50 | 8.0% | 34 |
| $112.00 | 5.4% | $4.33 | 4.1% | 41.3% | $101.97 | 9.4% | 4 |
| $117.00 | 10.1% | $3.11 | 2.9% | 29.6% | $103.20 | 13.0% | 0 |
What the $109.00 call pays at expiration
One illustrative strike — the richest premium in the table — against 100 shares bought at $106.30. Profit caps at $850.00 if UAL finishes above $109.00; below $100.50 the premium stops covering the loss on the stock.
| Stock at expiration | Profit / loss per share | On 100 shares |
|---|---|---|
| $79.73 | $-20.78 | $-2,077.50 |
| $86.37 | $-14.13 | $-1,413.13 |
| $93.01 | $-7.49 | $-748.75 |
| $99.66 | $-0.84 | $-84.37 |
| $106.30 | +$5.80 | +$580.00 |
| $112.94 | +$8.50 | +$850.00 |
| $119.59 | +$8.50 | +$850.00 |
| $126.23 | +$8.50 | +$850.00 |
| $132.88 | +$8.50 | +$850.00 |
When a covered call fits UAL
A covered call sells someone else the right to buy your shares at the strike. It pays you today and caps your upside there, so it suits a holding you are content to own flat and content to sell at the strike — not one you expect to run.
The premium is compensation for implied volatility. Rich implied volatility pays more, and usually pays more because the market expects a move; a high annualised number on a name about to report earnings is a warning as often as an opportunity. Check the UAL expected move and the open-interest walls before assuming the strike is far enough away.
Full mechanics, assignment and rolling are in the covered call guide; to model a different strike or a multi-leg version, open the profit calculator with UAL loaded.
Questions
- What does a UAL covered call pay right now?
- The $109.00 call expiring Oct 23, 2026 (36 days out) collects $5.80 per share, 5.5% of the $106.30 share price, or 55.3% annualised if you repeat it.
- What is the break-even on a UAL covered call?
- Selling the $109.00 call against stock bought at $106.30 breaks even at $100.50 — the share price less the premium. Below that the premium no longer covers the loss on the shares.
- What happens if UAL closes above the strike?
- The shares are called away at $109.00. Total return is 8.0%: the premium plus the move from $106.30 up to the strike. Gains above the strike belong to the buyer.
More on UAL
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Educational, not investment advice. Options involve risk. Open interest is reported with a one-session lag by OCC, so these levels describe positioning as of the last settled session, not live intraday flow.