A practical comparison of tracking the wheel in a sheet you maintain, such as Excel or Google Sheets, and tracking it in OptionsLoop.
As of October 2026. This page describes the bookkeeping, not a feature list or a price for Excel or Google Sheets. OptionsLoop's price, Google sign-in, and features are from the OptionsLoop app and its privacy policy.
A spreadsheet starts empty. You decide the columns, the formulas, and how a cash-secured put stays connected to the shares you were assigned and the covered calls you sell afterward. That flexibility is the point: the file can hold any side calculation you care about, and you can change the layout whenever you want.
OptionsLoop is already arranged around that cycle. Cash-secured puts, assignment, covered calls, and called-away shares are linked into one wheel, with cost basis and total profit and loss. You sign in with Google. The same account syncs across the website and the iOS and Android apps.
The guide to tracking wheel trades walks through why a row-per-fill log loses the thread. The cost-basis guide explains the premium adjustment people usually rebuild by hand. The wheel strategy calculator runs one cycle in the browser with no sign-in, if you only need the math.
| Topic | A spreadsheet you maintain | OptionsLoop |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A grid. You design how a wheel is recorded. Excel and Google Sheets are common places to do that. | A wheel tracker on the web, plus iOS and Android apps. |
| Price | No OptionsLoop fee. This page does not state what Excel or Google Sheets costs. | Free plan. Premium is $4.99/mo or $39.99/yr. The free plan shows ads. Premium removes ads in the iOS and Android app. |
| Connecting a wheel | You relate the put, the stock purchase, the calls, and any rolls with your own rows and formulas. | Cash-secured puts, assignment, covered calls, and called-away shares are linked, with cost basis and total profit and loss. |
| Rolls | A roll is a close plus a new open. You record both and keep them attached to the same position. | The trade form can close a short option and open the replacement as a roll. |
| Getting trades in | You type fills, paste them, or import a file into the sheet yourself. | Robinhood activity CSV, with duplicate detection, or manual entry for any broker. Open and close fees have their own fields. |
| Getting trades out | The file is already the copy. | Export trades to CSV, or download a JSON backup of the account. |
| Charts | Whatever charts you build from the columns. | History, performance, and profit and loss charts are on the free plan. |
| Beyond the wheel | You can add columns for any strategy you want to follow. | Verticals, iron condors, straddles and strangles, and calendar and diagonal spreads can be logged. Linking legs is free. The grouped view with max risk and max gain is Premium. |
| Reminders | Your own calendar or the reminders in the spreadsheet product you use. This page does not describe those. | Premium, in the iOS and Android app: on-device alerts 3 days and 1 day before an open covered call or cash-secured put expires. |
| Where the record lives | Wherever you save the file. | Google Firestore, under the Google account you use to sign in. |
A sheet is a good fit when the layout itself is the product: a custom return formula, a column your broker's export already matches, or a workbook you share with someone who will never open another app. Nothing in OptionsLoop stops that. CSV export is there so the sheet can be a report, not the system of record.
The sheet gets heavier when several tickers are at different points in the cycle and a roll, an early close, or an assignment has to be threaded back to the original put. That is the job OptionsLoop is built for. It is not a general spreadsheet, and it will not recreate an arbitrary workbook.
Premium is $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year. It adds a Form 8949-style tax CSV, capital efficiency analytics (annualized return on capital deployed), the grouped multi-leg view, and the mobile expiration reminders. Premium removes ads in the iOS and Android app. The privacy policy says the website shows ads to free users.
Log the wheel in OptionsLoop, then export CSV whenever a sheet is the right place for the next calculation.
Track your wheel trades freeYes. A spreadsheet can record every fill if you set up the columns and formulas. The ongoing work is keeping the put, the assignment, the covered calls, and any rolls tied to one cost basis as you add tickers. OptionsLoop does that linking for trades you enter or import. You can still export a CSV and open it in a sheet.
It covers wheel linking, cost basis, and profit and loss for the trades you log. It does not lock the data inside the app. You can export trades to CSV for your own reports, or download a JSON backup of the account. A spreadsheet remains a reasonable place to build a view the app does not have.
The free plan includes wheel tracking, Robinhood CSV import, manual entry for any broker, and history, performance, and profit and loss charts. Premium is $4.99 per month or $39.99 per year and adds tax export, capital efficiency analytics, grouped multi-leg analysis, and expiration reminders in the iOS and Android app. Keeping a sheet does not add an OptionsLoop fee. This page does not state a price for Excel or Google Sheets.
A spreadsheet file lives wherever you save it. OptionsLoop stores trade data in Google Firestore under the Google account you use to sign in. The OptionsLoop privacy policy says the company does not read, sell, or share that trade data. Google hosts the database.
This page is a product comparison, not financial, tax, or legal advice. Options trading can lose the capital you set aside. A spreadsheet formula can be wrong, and so can a tracker. OptionsLoop is a record-keeping tool, not a broker or investment adviser.