Options Profit Calculator

An options profit calculator shows the profit or loss of an options position at expiration across every price the stock could land on — the max profit, the max loss, and the breakeven. On this site that tool is the Payoff Diagram Builder: add up to four legs of calls and puts, long or short, and see the whole position's payoff plotted instantly. It is free and needs no signup.

What an options profit calculator does

Every options position has a payoff that depends on where the stock finishes. A profit calculator works that out for you: you describe the trade leg by leg — for each option, whether it is a call or a put, its strike, the premium you paid or received, and how many contracts — and it computes the position's value at expiration for a whole range of stock prices. The result is a payoff diagram: a line showing your profit or loss at every price, so you can see the shape of the trade before you place it.

The three numbers that matter

A good options profit calculator surfaces three figures:

• Max profit — the most the position can make. For a sold-premium trade this is usually the credit; for a long option it can be open-ended.
• Max loss — the most it can lose. This is your true risk, and the number to size positions against.
• Breakeven — the stock price (or prices) where the position crosses from loss to profit. Some trades have one breakeven, spreads and condors have two.

Reading them off a payoff diagram takes seconds: the flat tops and bottoms are the max profit and max loss, and the points where the line crosses zero are the breakevens.

How profit is calculated at expiration

At expiration each leg is worth only its intrinsic value: a call is worth the stock price minus its strike (never less than zero), a put is worth its strike minus the stock price (never less than zero). Multiply each by 100 shares per contract, add the premium you collected and subtract the premium you paid, and you have the position's profit or loss at that stock price. Do that across a range of prices and you have drawn the payoff curve — exactly what the builder does for you.

For a specific strategy, start there

The payoff builder models any combination of legs. But if you already know the strategy, a dedicated calculator is faster and shows strategy-specific numbers (return on capital, annualized return, assignment cost basis):

• Covered Call and Cash-Secured Put — the core income trades.
• Bull Put Spread, Iron Condor and Iron Butterfly — defined-risk credit trades.
• Butterfly Spread, Collar and Protective Put — debit and hedging structures.
• Not sure which? The Strategy Finder matches a strategy to your goal, or browse all the options calculators.