A New Way to Turn Up Covered-Call Opportunities

People usually think of covered-call writing as the turtle's route to wealth and glory. And in a market ruled by hares, it's little wonder you don't hear much about it. With covered calls, returns kind of trickle in like the yield on some dull muni bond. Who wants that when last year you could have made 84% just betting on the Nasdaq Composite?

Now there's a new Web site, Optionfind.com, that might make covered-call writing seem downright sexy. Seriously. It functions just like an online stock-screening tool, except it screens for covered-call opportunities that can produce returns on par with a hedge fund -- and probably with a lot less risk.

More on the Web site in a moment. First -- quick review -- what exactly is a covered call? ...