🎯 Strategy — name it, and the page finds the strikes
The ordinary way to a trade: what do you expect the price to do? Pick a strategy by name (a bull call spread, an iron condor, a long straddle…). The page then prices it at every strike set the board allows and lists them, best first.
💡 Four steps, top to bottom
① Strategy — what you expect, then which strategy. ② Expiry and your view — how far you think it goes. ③ The list — every version, ranked. ④ Your trade — pick one and change its strikes with drop-downs.
New words? Glossary. The top strip works as on every ticker page. The page prices the last session's real quotes.
① Pick what you expect, then the strategy
Four big buttons, each with its own strategies underneath. A card tells you what it is, its risk and reward and when it is used; a tag says whether it is a credit or a debit and whether the risk is open-ended.
| You expect | Strategies |
|---|---|
| 🐂 Bullish — the price rises | Long call · Bull call spread · Bull put spread · Cash-secured put · Risk reversal (bullish) · Call backspread |
| 🐻 Bearish — the price falls | Long put · Bear put spread · Bear call spread · Risk reversal (bearish) · Put backspread |
| ⚖ Range · income — it stays inside a range | Iron condor · Iron butterfly · Call butterfly · Put butterfly · Broken-wing put butterfly · Jade lizard · Short strangle · Short straddle |
| 🌪 Big move — a large move, either way | Long straddle · Long strangle · Reverse iron condor |
⚠ "Open-ended risk" is a real warningA cash-secured put, a risk reversal, a jade lizard, a short strangle and a short straddle have a loss that the legs themselves do not cap. A broker asks for margin and an options-approval level for them, and a loss can be many times the credit.
② Expiry and your view
| Box | What it does |
|---|---|
| Expiry | Which expiry to use. The default is about 30 days. |
| Your view | How far you expect the price to go. Bullish: "it reaches __ % above today". Bearish: "it falls __ % below". Range: "it stays within ± __ %". Big move: "it moves at least ± __ % either way". Left empty it uses the expiry's own 1σ move. |
The list is ranked by return on the money at risk if your view is right (judged at that price at expiry; for a range trade, the average over the range; for a big-move trade, at the worse of the two edges).
Limits
| Limit | What it does |
|---|---|
| Most to risk $ | The most the trade may put at risk — a spread's max loss; for an open-ended trade, the margin-style estimate Combo uses. |
| Min chance of profit % | Chance of a profit at expiry on the market's own volatility for this expiry. |
| Cash | Credit only · debit only · either. |
| Widest wing $ | The widest distance between a long and a short strike you accept (for spreads). |
| equal wings | A textbook condor or iron butterfly has equal wings; unticked, every mix of widths is tried. |
| liquid strikes only | Only strikes with a two-sided market, the open interest below, and a spread no wider than the cap below. |
| Rank by | Best if my view is right · Highest chance of profit · Best reward : risk · Most credit / least debit · Biggest possible gain. |
③ The list
| Column | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Payoff | A tiny drawing of the profit and loss at expiry. |
| Strikes | The legs. |
| Credit / debit | Cash at open, one lot, at the fill you chose. |
| Max gain · Max loss | At expiry. "no limit" where the legs do not cap it. |
| Gain : risk | Max gain ÷ max loss. |
| Break-even | The price at expiry where the trade turns from loss to profit, and its distance from today's price. |
| Chance of profit | Probability the trade ends in profit on the market's own volatility — an estimate from the options, not a forecast. |
| If your view is right | The profit or loss at the price your view names, and that as a % of the money at risk. |
Click a header to sort. The pills above the table give the spot, expiry, ATM IV and the 1σ move; a quality line says which quotes were repaired or left out.
④ Your trade
Click a row. The strikes appear as drop-downs you can change (a "thin" tag marks an illiquid strike), with:
- a sentence in plain words: what you receive or pay, the most you can make and lose and where, break-evens, chance of profit;
- the payoff chart — shaded band = the market's one-standard-deviation range to expiry, dots = break-evens, markers under the axis = your strikes;
- ten numbers including net delta, theta / day and vega / vol point;
- the leg table with bid, ask, the price used and IV;
- Open the full trade window (payoff through time, price × time grid, other expiries and strikes) and copy legs as plain text for a broker ticket.
⚙ More settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Strikes within ± % | The window of strikes read, as % of the price each side. |
| Strikes per leg | The most strikes tried for each leg. A board with more keeps its round strikes (every 2nd, 5th, 10th…) and covers the whole window. |
| Min OI · Max spread % | What counts as a liquid leg (a leg wider than this % of its mid is not liquid — unless its market is no more than 5 cents wide). |
| Fill | mid · 25 / 50 / 75 % across · at the ask / bid. A real order often fills across the spread. |
🎓 Pro tipSet Fill to 25–50 % across before comparing. At mid, a tight list looks better than anything you can get.
⚠ The best row is the best of manyA list is ranked on "if your view is right". A view is not a forecast — widen your view or change the ranking to see how fragile the top row is.
A routine that works
- Choose the group that matches what you really expect, then a strategy.
- Set an expiry that gives the idea enough time (30–45 days is common).
- Put a limit on Most to risk $ — the number you could live with.
- Rank by "chance of profit" and "best if my view is right" and compare the top rows.
- Pick one, adjust a strike, read the sentence, then open the full trade window.