Collect 15% On DASH Stock Now, And Still Keep 21% Of Upside

Here is a way to get paid a meaningful cash income, right now, on DoorDash shares you already own, income you keep no matter what the stock does, in exchange for capping your gains above a higher price.

DoorDash (DASH) has been on a bit of a tear, rallying +22% over the last three months to trade around $189.35 a share. But zoom out, and it’s a different story, with the stock still well below its highs. For owners of the stock, that kind of choppiness can be frustrating, but it also creates an opportunity to generate a real cash income from your shares today, an income you get to keep regardless of where the stock goes next.

15% annualized income on DASH shares you already own, with 21% of upside room, by selling a covered call.

• You own (or buy) 100 shares of DASH near today’s price of $189.35.
• Sell one call option on DASH expiring 6/17/2027, with a strike price of $230, about 21% above today.
• Collect roughly $2,675 in premium up front per contract (each contract covers 100 shares), which you keep no matter what the stock does.
• That premium is about 15.1% annualized on the $18,935 of stock, income you earn just for holding.
• If DASH finishes above $230, your shares are called away at $230. Counting the premium, your total return works out to about 38% annualized, but you give up any gains above the strike.

Either Way, The Premium Is Yours To Keep

If DASH finishes below $230 on 6/17/2027, the call expires worthless, and you keep the full $2,675 premium and all your shares. That is about 14% over 344 days, income earned just for holding, and you are free to sell another call.

If DASH finishes above $230, your 100 shares are called away at $230. You still keep the $2,675 premium, and counting it your total gain works out to about 36%, a healthy exit. The cost of the trade is that any gain above $230 is no longer yours. And if the stock instead falls, you keep the premium but still ride the shares down, cushioned only slightly.

So the whole trade comes down to one thing: how much of that upside are you really likely to give up, and would you be content to sell at that higher price?

Would You Be Happy To Sell DASH Higher?

The only real cost to this trade is the one you need to think about: you are capping your upside. If the stock roars past the price you agree to sell at, you miss out on those extra gains. So, how much upside are you really giving up? The bull case is that DoorDash is simply out-executing everyone. The company says it is “gaining share virtually in every single market” and that even its oldest restaurant business “continues to grow at above historical highs.” If that momentum continues, the stock could certainly keep running, and you would be leaving money on the table.

On the other hand, that growth comes at a cost. Analysts on the company’s latest call repeatedly questioned the “depth or the duration” of major strategic investments, including a complex global tech replatforming. These initiatives are expensive and carry real execution risk, which could weigh on the stock’s performance in the near term. For a look at how investors are thinking about growth at its closest rival, we explored the key metric for Uber in a separate piece. Capping your upside makes sense if you believe these heavy investments will keep the stock range-bound for a while, making the immediate income more valuable than the potential for a massive breakout. The decision comes down to how you see that trade-off, and the key thing to watch will be the company’s operating margin as it navigates this investment cycle.

How Much Could The Stocks You Hold Pay You?

You may not own DASH, but you almost certainly own something that could be paying you. Our Covered Call Finder lets you type in a stock, or a few, and instantly see the income a covered call could generate on each, then dial the strike up or down with a slider to balance more income against more upside. It is the quickest way to see what the names in your own portfolio could pay.

One step out from a single name: a Nasdaq ETF like QQEW owns the whole Nasdaq group at once, so no single company can sink you. It still rises and falls with that one theme, which is exactly the gap the portfolio below closes.

Income Is Nice. Concentration Is Not.

Selling calls can squeeze income from a holding – but it does nothing about the bigger risk, which is how much of your wealth sits in that one name. If a single stock dominates your portfolio, the income is a rounding error next to the drawdown risk, and selling to diversify means a tax bill. There is a way to protect the position and diversify out tax-efficiently.