Start with a four-contract identity check
For this worksheet, buy the lower-strike put, sell the higher-strike put, sell the lower-strike call and buy the higher-strike call, one contract each. Require K_longPut < K_shortPut < K_shortCall < K_longCall. Use standard USD equity options with the same underlying, expiration, 100-share deliverable and 100 multiplier. Other contract types need their own specification and payoff review.
- Record each full contract identifier, option type, strike, expiration date and time, currency, multiplier, deliverable, exercise style and settlement convention. A shared ticker label alone is insufficient.
- Reject mixed expirations, different underlyings, adjusted deliverables and incompatible settlement terms. An apparently protective long leg may not offset the short obligation.
- Calculate put width Wp = K_shortPut - K_longPut and call width Wc = K_longCall - K_shortCall separately. Equal widths are common, but never assume equality or use only the smaller width.
- Keep the underlying quote and timestamp with the record. This example screen requires the current stock price to lie between the short strikes; that is a stated selection rule, not a requirement for every possible condor.
Use explicit rejection rules before any ranking
These thresholds are illustrative research settings, not tested trading recommendations. Set them before inspecting premiums. Missing information means incomplete, which is excluded from the passing list. If no candidate passes, return an empty list with reasons instead of relaxing the rules silently.
- Per-leg spread percentage = 100 × (ask - bid) / ((ask + bid) / 2). Apply limits to unrounded numbers. Open interest is a separate observation, often updated daily, and does not establish current available size.
- Use an actual quote observation time with its date and time zone. A screen refresh timestamp does not prove freshness. Fetch all four legs again if one leg must be refreshed.
- Do not combine a morning short-put bid with an afternoon long-put ask, even if that produces a larger credit. Two-second alignment is this worksheet's tolerance, not proof of an atomic or executable market.
| Check | Example acceptance rule | Reject or mark incomplete when |
|---|
| Expiration and widths | 21 to 45 calendar days; each wing $2.50 to $5.00 | One leg has a different expiry, or either width is outside the range. |
| Quote timing | Each quote age 0 to 60 seconds; latest minus earliest leg time ≤ 2 seconds | Times are unknown, future-dated, from different sessions, or outside either limit. |
| Bid/ask market | Each leg: bid > 0, ask ≥ bid, spread ≤ $0.10 and ≤ 20% of midpoint | A quote is missing, nonfinite, crossed, zero-bid or too wide. |
| Size and activity | Relevant quote size ≥ 1 contract; each leg volume ≥ 10 and open interest ≥ 100 | Short-leg bid size or long-leg ask size is insufficient; activity fields are absent or below the thresholds. |
| Credit and risk | Net credit / wider wing ≥ 20%; modeled expiration loss ≤ $500 per condor | Credit after costs is nonpositive, exceeds plausible bounds, or the risk budget fails. |
| Company events | No announced earnings or ex-dividend date before or on expiry; corporate actions reviewed | An event falls in the window, a contract adjustment is pending, or the event review is unresolved. |
Reproduce one hypothetical quote snapshot
Candidate A is a fictional USD 100 stock with 30 calendar days remaining. All four standard contracts have the same expiry, underlying, deliverable and multiplier. At a hypothetical decision time of 14:30:30 UTC on one trading date, the stock quote is from 14:30:21 UTC. Every option has session volume 50, open interest 500 and five contracts of displayed size at both bid and ask. Event checks are assumed complete with no announced event in the window. These are calculation inputs, not observed market prices.
- Put width = 95 - 90 = $5; call width = 110 - 105 = $5. The oldest leg is 10 seconds old and the time range is 2 seconds, so both timing tests pass.
- All absolute spreads are $0.05. The largest relative spread is on the $90 put: 0.05 / 0.475 = 10.53%, below the 20% cap.
- Selling at bids and buying at asks gives gross credit 1.10 + 1.20 - 0.50 - 0.55 = $1.25 per share, or $125 per condor. This is a conservative quote-based calculation, not a fill guarantee.
- The four midpoints produce $1.35 credit. The $0.10 difference is $10 per condor before costs. Do not substitute that midpoint result into a screen labeled as bid/ask pricing.
| Leg | Strike | Bid / ask | Quote time (UTC) | Price used |
|---|
| Buy put | $90 | $0.45 / $0.50 | 14:30:20 | $0.50 ask |
| Sell put | $95 | $1.10 / $1.15 | 14:30:21 | $1.10 bid |
| Sell call | $105 | $1.20 / $1.25 | 14:30:21 | $1.20 bid |
| Buy call | $110 | $0.50 / $0.55 | 14:30:22 | $0.55 ask |
Calculate credit and loss with the same units
Let c be gross credit per share, M the common multiplier, and F a stated dollar allowance for all modeled transaction costs per condor. Define net credit per share n = c - F / M. The calculations below assume every leg remains in the modeled position through expiration, no stock exposure from early assignment, and no taxes, financing or other costs beyond F. They do not estimate an early-close price or the broker's margin requirement.
- For expiration stock price T, payoff per share is n + max(90 - T, 0) - max(95 - T, 0) - max(T - 105, 0) + max(T - 110, 0). Multiply by 100 for one condor.
- At T = $100, this gives +$117. At $94, it gives +$17. At $90 or $110, it gives -$383. The loss estimate is conditional on the intact four-leg payoff.
- As a data sanity check, exclude c ≤ 0 or c ≥ max(Wp, Wc) for this credit screen and investigate the source. An apparent credit at or above the widest wing is not a free-profit candidate.
- Use the two simple breakeven formulas only when 0 < n < min(Wp, Wc). With unequal wings and a larger credit, a breakeven may lie outside its wing; calculate the piecewise payoff instead.
| Candidate A calculation | Formula | Result |
|---|
| Cost allowance | F = $8; F / M = 8 / 100 | $0.08 per share |
| Net credit | n = 1.25 - 0.08; M × n | $1.17 per share; $117 per condor |
| Put-side expiration loss | M × (Wp - n) = 100 × (5 - 1.17) | $383 |
| Call-side expiration loss | M × (Wc - n) = 100 × (5 - 1.17) | $383 |
| Worst modeled expiration loss | M × (max(Wp, Wc) - n) | $383 |
| Credit / wider width | 1.17 / 5 | 23.40%; passes 20% rule |
| Credit / modeled loss | 117 / 383 | 30.55% for this term; not expected return |
| Expiration breakevens after allowance | 95 - 1.17; 105 + 1.17 | $93.83 and $106.17 |
Keep a candidate table that explains every decision
The following rows change only the stated input from Candidate A. All are hypothetical. Rejected combinations are deliberately retained so another reviewer can reproduce why an attractive displayed credit was excluded. A missing required value remains unknown, not zero.
- Candidate B illustrates why the wider wing controls the worst expiration loss. Keeping a $5 denominator would incorrectly preserve A's risk and ranking.
- For passing rows, compare identical cost and quantity assumptions. Rank within the same expiry by credit / modeled loss, then inspect absolute loss and quote spreads. That ratio does not measure probability of profit.
- Save the rule version, decision time, four raw contract records, cost allowance, event sources and rejection reason. A later re-screen is a new snapshot, not a correction to the old record.
| Candidate | Change from A | Calculation or failed check | Disposition |
|---|
| A | None | $117 net credit; $383 modeled loss; both wings $5 | Pass to broker review |
| B | Buy the $112.50 call at the same hypothetical quote | Call wing $7.50; loss $633; credit / width 15.60% | Reject: wing, risk and credit-ratio rules fail |
| C | $90 put bid/ask becomes $0.20 / $0.50 | Spread $0.30 and 85.71%; gross credit still $1.25 | Reject: quote quality fails |
| D | $90 put time becomes 14:30:00 UTC | Oldest quote age 30 seconds; inter-leg time range 22 seconds | Reject: quotes are individually recent but not aligned |
| E | Long call expires seven days later | Different expiry despite the same strike and price | Reject: not the matched-expiry structure |
| F | Earnings announced in 12 days | Event lies inside the 30-day window | Reject under the stated event exclusion |
| G | Long-call ask size or quote time is absent | No evidence for the size or timing test | Incomplete: obtain source data before ranking |
Confirm events and the combined order before treating a row as tradable
Check issuer announcements for earnings dates and dividend dates, and contract-adjustment notices for mergers, splits, spin-offs or special distributions. Record both the event date and when its source was checked. An estimated earnings date or "TBD" does not satisfy this worksheet's event rule. No announced event also does not eliminate unscheduled news risk.
- Rebuild the candidate in the broker's multi-leg order ticket and verify all four identifiers, buy/sell directions, quantities and the minimum net credit. Review the current combined market and broker requirements before any separate submission.
- Recalculate with the proposed limit credit and current costs. If the available combined credit no longer passes, remove the row. Displayed leg sizes cannot guarantee simultaneous execution at the arithmetic leg prices.
- Do not treat four separate fills as equivalent to one filled spread. Partial execution changes exposure. A candidate worksheet does not place an order or manage that exposure.
- American-style short options can be assigned early; near-expiry assignment can leave stock exposure. OIC also identifies corporate actions as a source of changed exercise behavior. The expiration loss figure does not cover every path created by assignment or leg removal.
Collect the inputs in TradingView and Pineify
TradingView's Options chain provides expiration, strike and spread filters with bid/ask columns. Select a single expiration and inspect calls and puts together. Its Options strategy builder supports manually adding positions and choosing bid, ask, midpoint or theoretical pricing. Enter the four directions and quantities, then compare the selected pricing basis with this worksheet. A modeled diagram is not evidence of execution.
- In Pineify AI Stocks & Options Picker, open a ticker's Options Chain tab, choose an available expiration and use All to inspect calls and puts. The table displays strike, bid, ask, delta, implied volatility, volume and open interest for returned contracts.
- Manually copy the four selected contracts into the worksheet and calculate both widths, net credit and rejection tests. The current per-ticker chain does not automatically assemble or rank iron condors.
- The displayed Pineify chain does not expose the quote timestamps and sizes required here. Obtain those, deliverable specifications and current event confirmations from verifiable broker, exchange or issuer sources. Missing rows or fields cannot be inferred from neighboring strikes.
- Pineify's dividends and earnings view can support research, but historical records or an unconfirmed next date are insufficient for an event exclusion. The available chain also does not establish complete market coverage or a current executable combined quote.
