Home › Guides › Options: the math

Free options cheat sheets: the Greeks and the strategies, one page each

Here are two free one-page PDFs to print and keep by your screen. One explains the option Greeks in plain words. The other lists the main strategies by what you expect the stock to do, with the max gain, max loss and break-even for each.

Options guide · 7-minute read · Updated 2026-11-01

Download the two cheat sheets

• Option Greeks cheat sheet (PDF)
• Options strategies cheat sheet (PDF)

Each is one page, sized for US Letter paper. On A4 paper, pick "fit to page" when you print. No sign-up, no email. They're part of our free trading templates.

What's on the Greeks cheat sheet

The Greeks are numbers on the Options chain that say how an option's price reacts to things. The sheet gives each one a box: what it measures, a few plain rules, and (for all but rho) a one-line example.

Under the boxes is a table of plus or minus signs for five positions: buy a call, buy a put, sell a cash-secured put, a covered call, and a call sold with no shares. Seller rows are the mirror of buyer rows. A sold put is plus delta, minus gamma, plus theta, minus vega. In plain words: you gain a little if the stock rises, time works for you, and an IV jump hurts.

The bottom has eight rules of thumb. The most important: no Greek changes the worst case. A sold put's worst case is still the stock going to zero.

Every Greek is per share. Multiply by 100 for one contract. For the full story, read the Greeks explained, or the Greeks, only as far as the wheel needs if you sell puts and calls.

What's on the strategies cheat sheet

Fourteen strategies, grouped by what you expect the stock to do:

Each row says how you set it up, then gives the max gain, max loss and break-even as formulas in words. For example, a bull put spread reads: max gain = net credit; max loss = width − net credit; break-even = sold strike − net credit. "Width" is the gap between the two strikes.

There are no dollar amounts on the sheet. It works for any stock at any price, because you plug in your own numbers. Every amount is per share, at expiry, before fees.

How to use one before a trade (hypothetical)

A made-up stock, XYZ, trades at $52. You're thinking about a bull put spread: sell the $50 put, buy the $45 put, for a net credit of $1.50.

Find the bull put spread row and plug in:

• Max gain = net credit = $1.50 a share, or $150 for one contract.
• Max loss = width − net credit = ($50 − $45) − $1.50 = $3.50 a share, or $350.
• Break-even = sold strike − net credit = $50 − $1.50 = $48.50.

Now check those three numbers against prices at expiry:

At $40, you owe $10 a share on the sold put, the bought put pays back $5, and you keep the $1.50 credit: −$10 + $5 + $1.50 = −$3.50, or −$350. That's the max loss row, and it's more than twice the max gain.

That's the habit the sheet builds. Read the max loss column first. If you wouldn't be fine losing that number, don't open the trade. The sheet's last line tells you to read that column first.

A few things the sheets don't cover

• Closing early or early assignment changes the result. The formulas are for holding to expiry.
• Fees come off every row.
• Your broker's approval level. Spreads, condors and strangles need a higher options level at most brokers.
• The odds. A formula tells you how much, not how likely. Delta gives a rough guess of the odds.

To see the whole payoff on a chart, try the options strategy payoff calculator. For spreads, the credit spread calculator and the iron condor calculator do the same math with your strikes. For how long a trade has left, the days to expiration calculator counts calendar and trading days.

The seller's own formulas, from cushion to cost basis, are on the options math cheat sheet. For the spreads themselves, read vertical spreads explained and option strategies beyond the wheel. If you're new, start with the wheel strategy.

Questions