What Are LEAPS Options?
LEAPS — Long-Term Equity Anticipation Securities — are options contracts with expiration dates that extend beyond one year from the current date. Unlike standard options that typically expire within weeks or months, LEAPS give investors a significantly longer time horizon to benefit from anticipated price movements. LEAPS are available as both calls and puts on hundreds of individual stocks and several major ETFs, making them versatile tools for long-term portfolio strategies.
Our free LEAPS Options Screener helps you find and compare long-dated options contracts across any U.S.-listed stock or ETF. By filtering for expirations 1+ years out, you can quickly identify LEAPS that offer the best combination of leverage, cost efficiency, and risk characteristics for your investment thesis. Whether you're looking for deep in-the-money LEAPS calls as stock substitutes, or long-dated puts for portfolio protection, this screener provides the pricing, Greeks, and analytics you need.
Why Use Our LEAPS Options Screener?
Long-Dated Expirations Only
Automatically filters for options expiring 1+ years from today, showing only true LEAPS contracts. No need to manually sift through near-term expirations.
Leverage Ratio Analysis
See how many effective shares of stock movement you control per dollar invested. The leverage ratio (Delta × 100 ÷ Cost) helps you find the most capital-efficient LEAPS contracts.
Annualized Theta Cost
Compare the true cost of holding LEAPS across different strikes and expirations. Annualized theta cost shows the yearly percentage of value lost to time decay.
Full Greeks & IV
Every LEAPS contract displays Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega, and implied volatility. Understand your risk exposure and sensitivity to price changes, time, and volatility shifts.
Flexible Filters
Filter by contract type, strike price range, and minimum days to expiration. Narrow down to exactly the LEAPS contracts that match your investment criteria.
Moneyness Classification
Each contract is classified as ITM, ATM, or OTM relative to the current stock price. Quickly identify deep in-the-money LEAPS ideal for stock replacement strategies.
How to Use This LEAPS Options Screener
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Enter a Ticker
Type any U.S. stock or ETF ticker (e.g., AAPL, MSFT, SPY, QQQ) and click "Screen LEAPS" to fetch all available long-dated options contracts expiring 1+ years from today.
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Review Summary Metrics
Check the summary cards for the underlying stock price, total available LEAPS contracts, average implied volatility, and the best leverage ratio available. These give you a quick overview of the LEAPS landscape for that ticker.
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Sort and Compare Contracts
Click column headers to sort by leverage ratio, annualized theta cost, delta, IV, or any other metric. Compare contracts across different strikes and expirations to find the optimal LEAPS for your strategy.
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Evaluate for Stock Replacement
For stock substitute strategies, focus on deep ITM calls with delta above 0.70, high leverage ratios, and low annualized theta costs. The moneyness column and intrinsic/time value breakdown help you assess how much you're paying for time premium.
Popular LEAPS Investing Strategies
LEAPS options support a variety of long-term investment approaches. Here are some of the most common strategies that investors use with long-dated options contracts:
- Stock Replacement: Buy deep ITM LEAPS calls (delta 0.70–0.90) to gain leveraged exposure to a stock at a fraction of the share price. You control 100 shares' worth of movement with defined downside risk limited to the premium paid.
- Poor Man's Covered Call: Buy a deep ITM LEAPS call and sell short-term OTM calls against it. This mimics a covered call strategy but requires far less capital than owning 100 shares outright.
- Long-Term Portfolio Hedge: Buy LEAPS puts on individual stocks or index ETFs to protect your portfolio against significant downturns over the next 1–2 years. The longer expiration means lower annualized hedging costs compared to rolling short-term puts.
- Bullish Leverage Play: Buy ATM or slightly OTM LEAPS calls when you have a strong long-term conviction on a stock. The extended time horizon gives your thesis more time to play out while limiting your maximum loss to the premium paid.