...but you can sell calls on that and earn an income on that until a company goes out of business. ...or the buyer of the contract exercises the option. And ye

...but you can sell calls on that and earn an income on that until a company goes out of business. ...or the buyer of the contract exercises the option. And yes, there's a lot of nuances, there exercise of options being just one of the nuances. That's why "you can essentially guarantee yourself an income" simply isn't true. Starting with the obvious fact that if it were true, everyone would do it.