Options payoff calculator
Type in the legs and see the whole trade as one line: where you make money, where you lose it, and whether either side has no ceiling.
| Stock price at expiry | Result |
|---|
How it works: at expiry every option is worth only what it is "in the money". A call is worth the stock price minus the strike (or nothing). A put is worth the strike minus the stock price (or nothing). For each leg you buy, the result is that value minus the premium you paid. For each leg you sell, it is the premium you got minus that value. Each contract is 100 shares. Shares you own add (price at expiry − your price) × shares; short shares subtract it. Add every leg up and you get one line. That line only bends at a strike, so the most you can make or lose is at a strike, at $0, or keeps growing past the highest strike ("unlimited"). Break-evens are where the line crosses $0. Expiry only, fees left out.
How to read a payoff chart
The flat line across the middle is $0. Above it you made money at expiry; below it you lost. The line bends only at a strike. Where it ends flat, your result is capped. Where it keeps sloping at the edge of the chart, it keeps going that way. Start with the worst row in the table, not the best one. A covered call, for example, looks calm until you see the $0 row: the shares can still fall all the way, and the premium only softens it. The covered call guide explains why.
Use it to check a trade before you place it
Type in the legs exactly as your broker shows them, then look for three things: the most you can lose, where you break even, and whether any side says "unlimited". If a number surprises you, find out why before you trade. Most strategies here are building blocks of the wheel strategy or close cousins of it. For a two-strike spread, vertical spreads explained walks through the same math by hand.
The Options Wheel System · for StructureX members
Learn the whole wheel, step by step. Use it for life.
44 plain-English modules take you from zero to running the wheel: covered calls, cash-secured puts, assignment, rolling, the math and the risk rules. A scored quiz after every part. Members of StructureX Foundations, my 50-lesson course, add it in one click, with the AI Research Desk.
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