[mikestew]

But to sell the calls, you should own the stock first. Puts can be bought w/o owning the stock. Granted, the put buyer pays the premium, so you don’t get guaranteed money in your pocket like you would selling calls.

[hiq]

I think you're referring to covered calls, but you can sell naked calls as well, meaning without owning the underlying.

[mikestew]

You’re right, but the keyword in my post was “should”. If you have to look up “short selling” in the dictionary (as in OP’s case), naked options aren’t on the menu.