Options profit calculator

How do you calculate options profit at expiry?

On the expiry date an option is worth only its intrinsic value, which makes the arithmetic exact. A call pays max(price at expiry - strike, 0) per unit and a put pays max(strike - price at expiry, 0). From that payoff, take away the premium if you bought the option; if you sold it, you keep the premium and owe the payoff instead. Then multiply by the number of contracts and the units each contract covers, and take off any fees.

Profit = (payoff per unit - premium per unit) x contracts x units per contract - fees, with the sign reversed for every leg you sold. A multi-leg position is simply the sum of its legs.

With the default inputs you buy one call with a $100 strike for $5.00, and the contract covers 100 units. At $110 on expiry the call pays $10.00 a unit, so the profit is ($10.00 - $5.00) x 1 x 100 = $500. At $103 it pays $3.00 and the position is $200 down. At any price of $100 or less the call expires worthless and the whole $500 premium is gone. The tables under the calculator show each leg and a ladder of prices for whatever you enter.

Breakeven, maximum profit and maximum loss by strategy

Each row uses this page's default strikes and premiums, one contract and 100 units per contract, with no fees. Every figure comes from the same payoff arithmetic the calculator runs.

The shortcuts behind the table: a long call breaks even at strike plus premium and a long put at strike minus premium. A bull call spread breaks even at the lower strike plus the net debit, a bear put spread at the higher strike minus the net debit, and both make at most the gap between the strikes minus that debit. A straddle or strangle needs the price to move beyond the strikes by the total premium paid. An iron condor keeps its credit between the two sold strikes and loses at most the width of one wing minus the credit.

Buying versus selling a call or a put: who carries the risk?

Buying and selling the same option are mirror images. The buyer pays the premium and can lose no more than that; the seller collects the premium and can make no more than that. What differs is the other side of the trade.

• Long put. Buying the 100 put for $4.00 and seeing the price at $90 at expiry gives a payoff of $10.00 a unit, a profit of $600 on one 100-unit contract. The breakeven is $96.00. The largest possible gain is reached only if the price falls to zero, because a price cannot go below nothing.
• Short put. Selling the 100 put for $5.00 brings in $500. If the price ends at $80, the put costs the seller $20.00 a unit and the position loses $1,500. The worst case is a price of zero: ($100 - $5.00) x 100 = $9,500. That loss is large, but it has a floor, and the calculator shows the number.
• Short call. Selling the 100 call for $5.00 also brings in $500, but a rising price has no ceiling. At $130 the position is $2,500 down, and every further dollar adds $100 to the loss. The calculator labels this maximum loss as unlimited and adds a note.

Whoever sells an American-style option can also be assigned before expiry. This page values every position at expiry only, so an early assignment is outside what it shows.

Bull call spread and bear put spread: profit with a ceiling and a floor

A vertical spread buys one option and sells another of the same type at a different strike. The option sold pays for part of the option bought, which lowers the cost, and in return it caps the profit.

Bull call spread. Buy the 100 call for $6.00 and sell the 110 call for $2.50. The net debit is $3.50 a unit, or $350 on one contract. The spread is worth at most the $10 gap between the strikes, so the most it can make is $10.00 - $3.50 = $6.50 a unit, $650 in all, at any price from $110 upward. At $104 at expiry it makes $50; at $115 it still makes $650, because the call sold gives back every dollar above $110. Below $100 both calls expire worthless and the $350 is lost.

Bear put spread. Buy the 100 put for $5.50 and sell the 90 put for $2.00, again a $350 debit. The position gains as the price falls, up to $650 at $90 or lower. With the price at $92 on expiry the bought put pays $8.00, the sold put pays nothing, and the profit is $450. The breakeven is $100 - $3.50 = $96.50.

Change either premium in the calculator and the breakeven, the maximum profit and the maximum loss all move by the same amount per unit, because the gap between the strikes stays fixed.

Long straddle and long strangle: when does a big move pay?

Both positions buy a call and a put, so they gain from a large move in either direction and lose when the price stays still.

Straddle. Buying the 100 call for $5.00 and the 100 put for $4.50 costs $9.50 a unit, $950 on one contract. If the price is exactly $100 at expiry, both options are worthless and the full $950 is lost. The breakevens are $100 minus and plus $9.50, so $90.50 and $109.50: the price has to move 9.50% either way just to recover the premium. At $120 the call pays $20.00 and the straddle makes $1,050.

Strangle. Buying the 95 put for $2.50 and the 105 call for $2.80 costs less, $530, but both strikes sit further away. The breakevens are $95 - $5.30 = $89.70 and $105 + $5.30 = $110.30, a move of 10.30% down or up from $100. In pounds, three contracts of the same strangle with the price at £120 on expiry make £2,910: the call pays £15.00 a unit against £5.30 of premium, times 300 units.

Between the two strikes the strangle loses its whole premium, which is why its payoff chart has a flat floor where the straddle's comes to a point.

Iron condor: how the credit, the wings and the breakevens fit

An iron condor sells a put and a call around the current price and buys a further put and call as protection. It opens for a net credit and keeps all of it if the price at expiry lands between the two sold strikes.

With the defaults you buy the 85 put for $0.80, sell the 90 put for $1.90, sell the 110 call for $1.70 and buy the 115 call for $0.70. The credit is $2.10 a unit, $210 on one contract, and that is the maximum profit. Each wing is $5 wide, so the most the condor can lose is $5.00 - $2.10 = $2.90 a unit, or $290, below $85 or above $115. The breakevens are $90 - $2.10 = $87.90 and $110 + $2.10 = $112.10.

A euro example on an index. Suppose an index option's specification sets 10 euros per index point. Buy the 4,800 put for 12 points, sell the 4,850 put for 20, sell the 5,150 call for 18 and buy the 5,200 call for 11. The credit is 15 points, €150 on one contract. Enter 10 as the units per contract and the calculator shows a maximum loss of €350, breakevens at 4,835 and 5,165, a profit of €150 with the index at 5,000 on expiry, and a loss of €150 at 5,180.

How contract size, quantity and fees change the result

Premiums are quoted per unit of the underlying. A $5.00 premium on a contract covering 100 units costs $500, and the same premium on a contract covering 10 units costs $50. Contract sizes, whether a contract settles in cash or by delivery, and whether it can be exercised early are all fixed in each contract's specification, so the calculator takes the units per contract as an input with 100 as a starting value. Set it to 1 to read every figure per unit.

Quantity scales everything in a straight line. Two contracts of 10 units each turn the default long call into a $100 profit at $110, with the same $105 breakeven.

Fees work differently: they shift the breakevens. Spread $20 of costs across the 100 units of the default call and each unit carries $0.20 more, so the breakeven moves from $105.00 to $105.20, the most you can lose rises from $500 to $520, and the profit at $110 falls to $480. On a narrow spread or a small credit, costs can take a large share of the maximum profit, which is why the field sits under Fees and commissions.

How to build an option profit table in Excel or Google Sheets

Put the price at expiry in B1, the strike in B2, the premium per unit in B3, the number of contracts in B4 and the units per contract in B5. Then:

• Long call: =(MAX(B1-B2,0)-B3)*B4*B5
• Long put: =(MAX(B2-B1,0)-B3)*B4*B5
• Short call or short put: the same formula multiplied by -1.

With 110, 100, 5, 1 and 100 in those cells, the long call formula returns 500, the same as the calculator. For a spread, give each leg its own row and add the rows. To draw a payoff chart, list prices down column A, point B1 at A2 in a copy of the formula, fill it down, and insert a line chart. A breakeven is where the column changes sign; checking the rows either side of a strike is the quickest way to find it by hand.

What the options profit calculator leaves out

It answers one question: what the position is worth on the expiry date at the price you enter. It does not show value before expiry, when options still carry time value that depends on volatility, interest rates and the days left. For that, use the Black-Scholes calculator, and to turn a quoted premium into the volatility it implies, the implied volatility calculator.

It also leaves out early exercise and assignment on American-style options, dividends paid before expiry, margin that a broker may require on sold options, the gap between bid and ask prices, and tax. Each of these can change the money you actually end with. Shares held against a sold call are a separate case with its own page, the covered call calculator. For how option buyers and sellers use positions like these to hedge, read how options are used for hedging.

Common mistakes and terms in option profit math

• Reading the premium as a contract price. A quote of 5.00 usually means 5.00 per unit; on a 100-unit contract the cost is 500.
• Forgetting the premium in the breakeven. A call with a $100 strike is in the money above $100 but profitable only above $105 when it cost $5.00.
• Calling a short put's loss unlimited. It is capped at the strike minus the premium, per unit, because the price cannot fall below zero.
• Leaving fees out of a small credit. On a $210 condor credit, $20 of costs is close to a tenth of the maximum profit.
• Using expiry figures before expiry. A spread that shows $650 at expiry is usually worth less than that while time remains.

Strike: the price at which the option can be exercised. Premium: the price paid for the option. Intrinsic value: what the option pays if exercised now. Net debit or credit: premium paid minus premium received across the legs. Breakeven: the expiry price at which profit is zero after premiums and fees. Wing: the protective option bought beyond a sold strike in a condor.

Frequently asked questions

Courses behind options strategies

Sources and review