Options profit calculator: payoff, break-even, and max loss for 8 strategies

• Each strategy is a list of legs: a long call is one bought call, a bull call spread is a bought call plus a sold call at a higher strike, an iron condor is four legs. The same payoff math runs on every list, so max profit, max loss, and break-evens come from one place.
• The premium is priced with the Black-Scholes model from the stock price, strike, days to expiration, volatility, risk-free rate, and dividend yield. You can type your own premium over it, for example the price you see on a broker screen.
• Profit or loss at expiration is the value of each leg at the final stock price minus the net premium paid, or plus the net premium received for covered calls, cash-secured puts, and iron condors. One contract covers 100 shares.
• Probability of profit is the share of Black-Scholes outcomes where the stock finishes beyond the break-even price. It uses the volatility you entered, so a different volatility gives a different probability.
• The Greeks (delta, gamma, theta, vega, rho) are summed across the legs, per share. Theta is the change in value for one day of time passing.

Start with a $100 stock, a $100 strike, 30 days to expiration, 25% volatility, a 4.1% risk-free rate, and a 2% dividend yield. Black-Scholes prices the call at $2.94 a share and the put at $2.77. One contract covers 100 shares, so buying the call costs $293.85. That is also the most you can lose. The break-even price is $102.94, and the stock has to close above it at expiration for the trade to profit. The model puts the chance of that at 33.88%. If the stock finishes exactly at $100, the call expires worthless and the result is a $293.85 loss. Delta is 0.523 per share, so a $1 rise in the stock moves the position about $0.52 per share, and theta of -0.050 means about $5.02 a day in time decay on the contract. Switch to a bull call spread with a $105 second strike and the cost drops to $1.81 a share, the break-even to $101.81, and the most you can make is capped at $3.19 a share.

• Prices come from Black-Scholes, which assumes a European option (exercised only at expiration), constant volatility, and no trading costs. Real option prices move with supply and demand and will differ from the model.
• The profit or loss shown is at expiration. It does not show the value of the position before then, so it cannot show what a position is worth after a week.
• The risk-free rate in the lab is a sample close to the 3-month Treasury bill yield in early October 2026. Update it to the current yield for your own check.
• Probability of profit assumes stock returns follow the lognormal distribution that Black-Scholes uses. Real stocks have larger sudden moves than that curve allows.
• Early assignment, margin requirements, commissions, and taxes are not modeled. For the iron condor, the two protective options sit 5% of the stock price beyond the strikes you enter.

Finance Quest is educational. It is not financial advice, and no calculator here knows your full situation.

A strategy with a large or unlimited upside draws the eye, and the long call in the example does have no cap on profit. But the same run shows a 33.88% chance of finishing in profit and a certain loss of the full $293.85 if the stock goes nowhere. A covered call at the same inputs reverses the picture: a 65.70% chance of profit, but the gain is capped at the $2.94 premium a share. Check max profit, max loss, break-even, and probability of profit together, since each one alone tells half the story.

The lesson for this lab is in Chapter 13, Stock Market Basics. Read the lesson

• Stock analysisA fair value estimate from earnings, growth and a P/E you choose, and the return to a target price.
• Risk toleranceScore risk tolerance against drawdown reactions, then map it to a mix.
• Portfolio analyzerReview concentration, allocation, and risk shape.