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Bull put spread vs bear call spread: which side should you sell?

Both are credit spreads: you collect cash and your loss is capped. A bull put spread wins if the stock stays above your put strike. A bear call spread wins if it stays below your call strike. Pick the side by which way you think the stock won't go, not by which pays more.

Comparison · 7-minute read · Updated 2026-11-09

The short answer

A bull put spread sells a put below the stock and buys a cheaper put further down. You win if the stock doesn't fall past your short put. A bear call spread sells a call above the stock and buys a cheaper call further up. You win if the stock doesn't rise past your short call.

At the same distance and width, the put side usually collects more credit. That isn't free money. Puts cost more because a stock can drop faster than it climbs, and buyers pay up for crash protection. That price gap is called Volatility skew. The extra credit is pay for a risk that's real.

Side by side

A worked example (hypothetical)

Harrow Steel, a made-up stock, trades at $100. Both spreads sit $10 from the stock, are $5 wide, and expire in 30 days.

• Bull put spread: sell the $90 put, buy the $85 put. Credit $1.50, or $150.
• Bear call spread: sell the $110 call, buy the $115 call. Credit $1.00, or $100.

The math:

• Bull put: max gain $150. Max loss = ($5 × 100) − $150 = $350. Break-even = $90 − $1.50 = $88.50.
• Bear call: max gain $100. Max loss = ($5 × 100) − $100 = $400. Break-even = $110 + $1.00 = $111.

The put side pays $50 more and risks $50 less. On paper it looks better on both counts. That's the skew. It is the market's way of saying a $10 drop is more likely, or more feared, than a $10 rise.

The month it went wrong

You pick the bull put spread because it pays more. Harrow has slipped from $108 to $100 over the past few weeks, and it "looks cheap."

It isn't done. A weak sales report comes out two weeks later, and Harrow falls to $84. Both of your puts are now in the money.

• Your $90 put is worth $6 against you: −$600.
• Your $85 put is worth $1 for you: +$100.
• Net at expiry: −$600 + $100 + $150 credit = −$350. The full max loss.

Check it another way: width $500 minus the $150 credit = $350. Same.

The bear call seller on the same stock kept the full $100. The stock went the way they bet. Selling the side that pays more, into a stock that's already falling, is how a "high credit" turns into a max loss. Put credit spread tested: what to do covers your choices mid-trade.

How to choose the side

Ask which way the stock can't easily go over the next month, then sell that side.

• Sell the bull put spread when the stock has a floor you trust: it just turned up from a low it has held before, the company is solid, and there's no earnings report inside the trade.
• Sell the bear call spread when the stock has a ceiling: it has stalled at the same high several times, or it just ran up hard and stretched.
• Neither when you have no opinion. Selling both sides at once is an Iron condor. Iron condor vs credit spread shows what that adds.

Already run the wheel strategy? The bull put spread is a Cash-secured put with a cheaper floor and no shares at the end; short put vs bull put spread compares them. The bear call spread is a covered call without the shares; see covered call vs bear call spread.

Pick a bull put spread if… pick a bear call spread if…

For the same strikes traded as a debit instead, read debit spread vs credit spread. Every strategy is in one table in the options strategy comparison chart, and the credit spread calculator checks your own numbers.

Spreads need a higher options approval level at most brokers, and in Canada not every broker allows them in a TFSA or RRSP.

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