Separate expiry payoff from option-value scenarios
At expiration, a call is worth max(S − K, 0) and a put max(K − S, 0). Each leg’s profit is direction × (value − premium) × 100 × quantity. Long legs use +1, short legs −1. The commission allowance is subtracted from the combined position.
Before expiration, the curves substitute a European Black-Scholes value. This page fixes the annual continuous interest rate at 5% and dividend yield at zero. Initial time is the UTC calendar-day difference to the shared expiry, divided by 365. The later curves use half and one quarter of that remaining time. They are not observed market marks.
Inspect the inputs before the template name
- Load a supported stock or ETF ticker. The independent underlying quote and option snapshot may not be simultaneous.
- Choose a template, then inspect the actual contract tickers, strikes and common expiration. Nearest-strike matching in a 250-contract sample can collapse several template legs onto the same contract; duplicate matches are blocked.
- Replace daily closes with your fills or explicit hypothetical premiums. Enter missing IV as an assumption if appropriate; the tool supplies no fallback average. The IV slider changes every leg by percentage points, so 20% plus 5 points means 25%.
- Review exact expiry bounds and the P/L and Greek curves. Unsupported or incomplete legs withhold the whole result rather than disappearing from the strategy.
Exact payoff bounds and cost treatment
Expiry payoff is piecewise linear. The extrema calculation evaluates a zero underlying price and every strike, then checks the slope above the highest strike. This avoids mistaking a long put’s finite profit at S = 0 for unlimited profit, or treating an unmatched short call as a bounded spread. Breakevens include roots outside the original plotting window. A flat zero-profit interval is represented by its boundary prices; an unbounded flat tail continues beyond its final boundary.
For a hypothetical long call at strike $100 with a $5 entry premium, one 100-share contract and $1 commission per side, the expiry loss is $502 and breakeven is $105.02. The total cost allowance is $2. Two contracts double both premium exposure and that allowance. The charge is a scenario input, not a broker fee quote.
Read position Greeks in the correct units
The curves multiply each option Greek by signed contracts × 100 shares. Delta measures dollar P/L sensitivity to a $1 underlying move. Gamma measures how that delta changes per $1. Theta is dollars per calendar day, and vega dollars per one percentage point of IV. The Greeks are calculated from the same model inputs as the initial-time P/L curve. Theta is not always negative for every long-option configuration, and local sensitivities need not describe a large market move.
What is outside the calculation
The tool supports one to four distinct standard 100-share call/put contracts with one future expiration. It does not model stock positions, covered calls, calendar spreads, same-day settlement timing, adjusted deliverables, American exercise, assignment, dividends, taxes or broker margin. For an explicit stock-leg scenario, use the options profit calculator.
Neither an equally spaced chart grid nor delta supplies a probability-of-profit model. No win rate, expected return or capital requirement is reported. The ratio is maximum expiry profit / maximum expiry loss, not a recommendation. Market prices, changing IV and real fills may differ from every displayed curve.