Quote from rew:
If your broker doesn't let you sell naked calls in a non-IRA account get another broker. Selling naked calls is just as legitimate as selling naked puts. If you see a stock at 27 that you believe is overpriced and think to yourself, "I'll happily short it at 30" then it makes perfect sense to sell a naked call at 30. And yes, when considering the return on the sale of a naked option you must always take the margin requirement into account.
A responsible broker will not just give anyone level 4 authorization on a whim from answering a few questions.
They will only if they see the customer has had experience responsibly trading options for some time and demonstrate some level of risk management when managing their portfolio.
You can quickly blow out your account with naked calls. Imagine those with OTM naked calls on PAR or MFE.