<<< My particular problem with selling cash secured puts on my account is that I only have 20,000 dollars.... so therefore there aren't many options to sell cash secured. >>>
I understand your situation. And i don't have an easy solution for you. However, I will say this,... but take it in the context that i know less about options than everyone else here:
Seems to me that trying to grow your $20,000 via strategies that are centered around your stock staying either "inside or outside", of various trading ranges, is a lot more risky, unpredictable, volatile, and stressful,... than selling cash secured puts (with or without a little extra juice via a "reasonable" % of margin.)
And I'm not suggesting that you use my year end % return goal of 13 - 19% annualized, as we all have our own goals and risk tolerance preferences.
But if your % goal is a double of 30% or more, then you need to think more about the issues of "probability vs potential".
As you know, the higher your % goal the lower your probability of achieving it.
As for those one size fits all, "generic" probability formulas, that I see some individuals discussing,.... I think they're only somewhat useful for trades of about a week or two.
Beyond that, they are useless, and may actually be putting investors at risk. Particularly if used to evaluate a period of months.
The formula is way to "generic", and totally ignores multiple criteria that should go into evaluating a stock and the probability of a trades success... both technical and fundamental.
All it does is sucker lazy investors into thinking they don't need to do any kind of "actual analysis" of their stock and trade, as they think it's magically been done for them.
If you want to grow that $20,000 i hope you are not chasing high % return trades, using volatile stocks, based on them staying inside or outside of limited trading ranges, and being too quick to take losses, (because those losses are "limited") and because your trade does not allow for a temporary plan "B" to fall back on.
I know most will probably disagree with me. And most know more about options than I do. But I'm just sharing my thoughts.
Just because a loss may be "limited", does not make it a good trade or a high probability one,... even if the "one size fits all" generic probability callculator says it does.
