Ares Capital Corp (ARCC) Covered Calls

Running ARCC covered calls helps you generate consistent income from Ares Capital Corp's shares you already own, turning a long stock position into a yield-producing asset. A covered call on Ares Capital Corp involves holding the underlying stock and selling a call option against it, collecting premium in exchange for capping upside at the strike price. Use our scanner to find the best ARCC covered calls in real time and filter for the strikes, expiries, and premiums that fit your strategy.

A covered call is one of the most widely used options strategies because it pairs limited risk with a clear income profile: if ARCC stays below the strike at expiration, you keep the premium and the shares; if it rises above, you deliver the stock at the strike and still pocket the premium. Selling ARCC covered calls works best when implied volatility is elevated, since richer premiums improve the risk-reward. Key inputs to evaluate include strike selection relative to delta, days to expiration, annualized return, and the probability of assignment — all of which determine whether a given Ares Capital Corp covered call is worth writing.

Ares Capital Corporation is a business development company specializing in acquisition, recapitalization, mezzanine debt, restructurings, rescue financing, and leveraged buyout transactions of middle market companies. It also makes growth capital and general refinancing. It prefers to make investments in companies engaged in the basic and growth manufacturing, business services, consumer products, health care products and services, and information technology service sectors. The fund will also consider investments in industries such as restaurants, retail, oil and gas, and technology sectors. It focuses on investments in Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Southwest regions from its New York office, the Midwest region, from the Chicago office, and the Western region from the Los Angeles office.

The fund typically invests between $20 million and $200 million and a maximum of $400 million in companies with an EBITDA between $10 million and $250 million. It makes debt investments between $10 million and $100 million The fund invests through revolvers, first lien loans, warrants, unitranche structures, second lien loans, mezzanine debt, private high yield, junior capital, subordinated debt, and non-control preferred and common equity. The fund also selectively considers third-party-led senior and subordinated debt financings and opportunistically considers the purchase of stressed and discounted debt positions. The fund prefers to be an agent and/or lead the transactions in which it invests. The fund also seeks board representation in its portfolio companies.

Income-focused investors, long-term ARCC holders, and systematic premium sellers all face the same challenge: finding the covered call strike and expiry that balances yield against the risk of being called away. Our scanner ranks covered calls by annualized return, downside protection, and probability of profit, so selling ARCC covered calls becomes a measured decision instead of a guess. Stop eyeballing the chain — let the best Ares Capital Corp covered calls come to you, already filtered for the metrics that matter.