Agent skill

Scanner Pmcc

by staskh in staskh/trading_skills

Scan stocks for Poor Man's Covered Call (PMCC) suitability. An agent skill from staskh/trading_skills.

MITAuto-check passedBusiness, Finance & HR

Install Scanner Pmcc

skills CLI
$ npx skills add staskh/trading_skills --skill scanner-pmcc -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install staskh/trading_skills scanner-pmcc --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/staskh/trading_skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/scanner-pmcc .claude/skills/scanner-pmcc && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
scanner-pmcc
GitHub stars
374
Used in
1 other repo
Token cost
~1.9k tokens
SKILL.md length
823 words
Files
3 (incl. scripts)
Skills in repo
28
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Scan stocks for Poor Man's Covered Call (PMCC) suitability. An agent skill from staskh/trading_skills.

  • Works in 5 steps: Run the scanner with --output to capture… → Read the JSON output. → Generate the markdown report yourself… → …
  • User asks about PMCC candidates
  • SKILL.md covers What is PMCC?, Instructions, Arguments and Scoring System (max possible:…, plus 8 more sections
  • Runs Python scripts from its folder; calls uv

What it does

Scanner Pmcc is an agent skill from staskh/trading_skills. Scan stocks for Poor Man's Covered Call (PMCC) suitability. Analyzes LEAPS and short call options for delta, liquidity, spread, IV, yield, trend direction, and earnings proximity. Use when user asks about PMCC candidates, diagonal spreads, or LEAPS strategies.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.9k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 4 other files, including scripts (for example `scripts/scan.py` and `templates/markdown-template.md`).

It sits in Business, Finance & HR. The repository describes itself as: Claude powered advisor system for option traders. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • User asks about PMCC candidates
  • Diagonal spreads
  • LEAPS strategies

Example prompts

  • “/scanner-pmcc”

Requirements

  • Python 3

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Run the scanner with --output to capture JSON data
  2. Read the JSON output.
  3. Generate the markdown report yourself using the template defined in templates/markdown-template.md. Do not use the --report flag — that…
  4. Save the generated markdown to sandbox/PMCC_Scan_YYYY-MM-DD_HHmm.md (match the JSON timestamp).
  5. Display the full report to the user.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit b71a74f. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Ships 1 file in scripts/ (Python), which the agent can run.

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • uv

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use uv, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Scanner Pmcc loads about 1.9k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 68 tokens; SKILL.md has 823 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~68
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.9k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from staskh/trading_skills at commit b71a74f, republished under its MIT licence (© staskh). 823 words, ~1,900 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/scanner-pmcc/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 2 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
scanner-pmcc
description
Scan stocks for Poor Man's Covered Call (PMCC) suitability. Analyzes LEAPS and short call options for delta, liquidity, spread, IV, yield, trend direction, and earnings proximity. Use when user asks about PMCC candidates, diagonal spreads, or LEAPS strategies.
dependencies
trading-skills

PMCC Scanner

Finds optimal Poor Man's Covered Call setups by scoring symbols on option chain quality.

What is PMCC?

Buy deep ITM LEAPS call (delta ~0.80) + Sell short-term OTM call (delta ~0.20) against it. Cheaper alternative to covered calls.

Instructions

Note: If uv is not installed or pyproject.toml is not found, replace uv run python with python in all commands below.

bash
uv run python scripts/scan.py SYMBOLS [options]

Arguments

  • SYMBOLS - Comma-separated tickers or path to JSON file from bullish scanner
  • --min-leaps-days - Minimum LEAPS expiration in days (default: 270 = 9 months)
  • --leaps-delta - Target LEAPS delta (default: 0.80)
  • --short-delta - Target short call delta (default: 0.20)
  • --output - Save results to JSON file (use this; Claude generates the report from the JSON)
  • --report - Save auto-generated markdown to file (programmatic fallback only — prefer Claude-generated reports)

Scoring System (max possible: 14, range: -8 to 14)

CategoryConditionPoints
Delta AccuracyLEAPS within ±0.05+2
LEAPS within ±0.10+1
Short within ±0.05+1
Short within ±0.10+0.5
LiquidityLEAPS vol+OI > 100+1
LEAPS vol+OI > 20+0.5
Short vol+OI > 500+1
Short vol+OI > 100+0.5
SpreadLEAPS spread < 5%+1
LEAPS spread < 10%+0.5
Short spread < 10%+1
Short spread < 20%+0.5
IV Level25-50% (ideal)+2
20-60%+1
YieldAnnual > 50%+2
Annual > 30%+1
Annual > 15%+0.5
TrendPrice > SMA50+1 / -1
RSI > 50+0.5 / -0.5
MACD > signal+0.5 / -0.5
EarningsNext earnings > 45 days+1.0
Earnings within 45 days-1.0
Earnings within short expiry-2.0
Weekly OptionsNo weekly options listed-1
Strike Density< 3 strikes spot→short-2
< 5 strikes spot→short-1
Short PremiumShort mid < $0.10-1
Short mid < $0.50-0.5

Weekly-options, strike-density, and short-premium are penalty-only (0 at best), so max_possible_score stays 14 while the theoretical minimum is -8 (base 0, trend -2, earnings -2, weekly -1, strike -2, short premium -1).

Output

Returns JSON with:

  • criteria - Scan parameters used
  • results - Array sorted by score:
    • symbol, price, iv_pct, pmcc_score, max_possible_score (always 14)
    • industry - GICS industry (falls back to sector), or null
    • description - one-sentence company description, or null
    • has_weeklies - whether the symbol lists weekly options (bool)
    • short_window - short-expiry window actually used: "7-21" or "5-30 (fallback)"
    • dividend_yield - continuous dividend yield (fraction) used in the BS/IV math
    • leaps - expiry, strike, delta, iv (calculated from bid/ask), last_price, bid/ask, spread%, volume, OI
    • short - expiry, strike, delta, iv (calculated from bid/ask), last_price, bid/ask, spread%, volume, OI
    • earnings_date - next earnings date (YYYY-MM-DD) or null
    • metrics - net_debit, short_yield% (period yield over the short window), annual_yield%, capital_required
    • score_breakdown - every scoring component as a <name>_delta (float) + <name> (explanation string) pair:
      • Base: leaps_delta, short_delta, leaps_liquidity, short_liquidity, leaps_spread, short_spread, iv, yield
      • Trend: trend_delta, trend (per-indicator dict)
      • Earnings: earnings_delta, earnings
      • Weekly options: weekly_options_delta, weekly_options
      • Strike density: strike_density_delta, strike_density
      • Short premium: short_premium_delta, short_premium
      • All _delta values sum to pmcc_score
  • errors - Symbols that failed (no options, insufficient data)

Report Generation

When the user asks for a report, a written analysis, or a saved document:

  1. Run the scanner with --output to capture JSON data:

    bash
    uv run python scripts/scan.py SYMBOLS --output sandbox/PMCC_Scan_YYYY-MM-DD_HHmm.json
  2. Read the JSON output.

  3. Generate the markdown report yourself using the template defined in templates/markdown-template.md. Do not use the --report flag — that produces mechanical string output. Claude-generated reports include real analysis, contextual warnings, and trader-relevant narrative.

  4. Save the generated markdown to sandbox/PMCC_Scan_YYYY-MM-DD_HHmm.md (match the JSON timestamp).

  5. Display the full report to the user.

Show full SKILL.md (287 more words)Show less

Examples

bash
# Scan specific symbols
uv run python scripts/scan.py AAPL,MSFT,GOOGL,NVDA

# Scan and save JSON for report generation
uv run python scripts/scan.py AAPL,MSFT,GOOGL --output sandbox/PMCC_Scan_2026-01-15_1430.json

# Use output from bullish scanner
uv run python scripts/scan.py bullish_results.json

# Custom delta targets
uv run python scripts/scan.py AAPL,MSFT --leaps-delta 0.70 --short-delta 0.15

# Longer LEAPS (1 year minimum)
uv run python scripts/scan.py AAPL,MSFT --min-leaps-days 365

IV Calculation

IV is always computed from market price data via Black-Scholes, never taken from Yahoo Finance's impliedVolatility column:

  • During trading hours: IV derived from bid/ask mid price
  • Off-hours (bid=ask=0): IV derived from last price, using the option's last trade timestamp as the pricing moment (not current wall-clock time)

This applies to both compute_atm_iv (used for scanner baseline IV) and per-option delta calculations.

Dividends: the Black-Scholes inversion uses the underlying's continuous dividend yield (Merton model). Ignoring it biases recovered IV downward for calls on dividend payers — badly for high yielders (e.g. a 7%-yield name would read ~12% IV instead of ~24%). The yield is normalized from yfinance's inconsistent fields (dividendRate/price, then trailingAnnualDividendYield, then dividendYield) and reported as dividend_yield (a fraction) in each result. The same yield feeds the strike-selection deltas and the max-profit repricing.

Key Constraints

  • Short strike must be above LEAPS strike
  • Options with bid = 0 and no last price are skipped
  • Moderate IV (25-50%) scores highest

Interpretation

  • Score > 12: Excellent candidate (strong structure + bullish trend + clear earnings runway)
  • Score 10-12: Good candidate
  • Score 6-10: Acceptable with caveats
  • Score < 6: Poor structure, bearish trend, or earnings risk
  • max_possible_score is always 14 — use pmcc_score / max_possible_score to gauge how close a candidate is to perfect
  • Off-hours scores are not comparable to market-hours scores. When bid/ask aren't both > 0 (outside trading hours), spread_pct is forced to 100%, which zeroes out both spread scores (−2 vs a live scan). A candidate can look up to 2 points worse simply because it was scanned off-hours. Compare candidates only within the same scan.

Dependencies

  • numpy
  • pandas
  • scipy
  • yfinance

Timezone

All timestamps and time-based calculations must use the America/New_York timezone. All JSON output must include generated_at (NY time string) and data_delay fields.

© staskh, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 2 other files (scripts) in .claude/skills/scanner-pmcc of staskh/trading_skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • scripts/scan.py
  • templates/markdown-template.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit b71a74f

Used in 1 other repository

We found 1 copy of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in staskh/trading_skills, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Scanner Pmcc next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Scanner Pmcc compared with similar skills
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Creating Financial ModelsChen-zexi/open-ptc-agent7294 repos~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Stock APIzhangxiangliang/stock-api2k—~507Automated safety check: PassMIT
Theme Detectortradermonty/claude-trading-skills3k2 repos~4.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Itr Walakaranb192/itr-wala871—~3.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Scanner Pmcc

What does Scanner Pmcc do?

Scan stocks for Poor Man's Covered Call (PMCC) suitability. An agent skill from staskh/trading_skills. Scanner Pmcc is an agent skill from staskh/trading_skills. Scan stocks for Poor Man's Covered Call (PMCC) suitability.

When should I use Scanner Pmcc?

Scanner Pmcc fits situations like: user asks about PMCC candidates; diagonal spreads; LEAPS strategies.

How do I install Scanner Pmcc in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add staskh/trading_skills --skill scanner-pmcc -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/scanner-pmcc in staskh/trading_skills) into .claude/skills/scanner-pmcc in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Scanner Pmcc in Codex?

Run `npx skills add staskh/trading_skills --skill scanner-pmcc -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.claude/skills/scanner-pmcc in staskh/trading_skills) into .agents/skills/scanner-pmcc in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Scanner Pmcc in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add staskh/trading_skills --skill scanner-pmcc -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/scanner-pmcc, .gemini/skills/scanner-pmcc, .github/skills/scanner-pmcc and .opencode/skills/scanner-pmcc in your project.

What does Scanner Pmcc need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Scanner Pmcc needs Python for the scripts in its folder and the command-line tools its instructions call (uv). Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does Scanner Pmcc access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use uv, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Scanner Pmcc safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. The check reads SKILL.md only: the scripts in the folder are not scanned, so read them before running anything.

What licence does Scanner Pmcc use?

Scanner Pmcc is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Scanner Pmcc use?

About 1.9k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 7.6k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Scanner Pmcc?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Scanner Pmcc: Technical Analyst (tradermonty/claude-trading-skills, 3k stars), Creating Financial Models (Chen-zexi/open-ptc-agent, 729 stars), Stock API (zhangxiangliang/stock-api, 2k stars) and Theme Detector (tradermonty/claude-trading-skills, 3k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Scanner Pmcc?

staskh (a GitHub user) maintains it in staskh/trading_skills, which has 374 GitHub stars. The repository holds 28 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 28, 2026.

Source: staskh/trading_skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.