For those curious the strategy that I am employing to earn money based on the time value is called "The Wheel" for stock options

Here are the steps:

1. Find a stock that is both optionable (offers stock options) and is also something you are comfortable with holding for longer term. You must then buy at least 100 shares of this stock to use for the strategy which will generate CASH (premiums) for your trading account.

2. Open the options order book and click "SELL" then click "CALL" to ensure that you are writing a covered call- it will show the option to use 100 shares as collateral of the given stock. The amount of cash you receive depends on several factors but mainly the time til expiration.

3. For each contract you write it will require 100 shares and will lock them up as collateral for the duration of the trade

A few key notes to remember:

• You are SELLING to OPEN the position so you will need to BUY to CLOSE if you want to exit before the expiration.

• Waiting til expiration risks the contract going "into the money" which would result in getting "called away", meaning you would have to sell your 100 shares at the given strike price on the contract.

• As time goes on the contract will decay in value based on the Theta.

• Best case scenario you get paid only once and worst case scenario you get paid twice.