Home › Guides › Iron condor calculator

Iron condor calculator
with a live payoff diagram

Enter four strikes and what you paid or collected. You get max profit, max loss, both breakevens and the full payoff curve — recalculated as you type, using the same P/L engine that runs inside the GreeksView desk.

Max profit
—
between the short strikes
Max loss
—
beyond either long strike
Breakevens
—
where the trade turns even
Risk / reward
—
capital at risk per $1 of credit
Your condor
Per-share premiums. One contract = 100 shares.
your downside protection
below the price you expect
above the price you expect
your upside protection
Profit at expiry Loss at expiry Breakeven Strikes & spot

How an iron condor pays

An iron condor is two credit spreads sold at once: a put spread below the market and a call spread above it. You collect premium from both. The trade wins when the underlying finishes between your two short strikes, where every option expires worthless and you keep the whole credit.

The formulas

Net credit = (short put + short call) − (long put + long call) Max profit = net credit × 100 × contracts Max loss = (widest spread width − net credit) × 100 × contracts Lower breakeven = short put strike − net credit Upper breakeven = short call strike + net credit

Both spreads are usually the same width, because the widest one sets your risk. A condor with a $10 put spread and a $5 call spread carries $10 of width risk while only collecting premium as if it were narrower.

Worked example

The defaults above are a textbook condor on a $600 underlying: short the 590 put and 610 call, long the 580 put and 620 call, collecting $4.00 net.

OutcomeWhere price landsResult
Best caseBetween 590 and 610Keep the full $400 credit
Breakeven586.00 or 614.00Credit exactly offsets the loss
Worst caseBelow 580 or above 620Lose $600 — $1,000 width less the $400 credit
The trade-off worth naming. You risk $600 to make $400 — you lose more when you're wrong than you make when you're right. Condors are sold because the probability of finishing between the shorts is high, not because the payoff is favourable. A run of quiet winners does not offset a careless loser.

What the calculator does not model

This is an expiry payoff — where the position settles if held to the end. Three things move your real P/L before then:

For the live version — Greeks, current marks and what-if scenarios against real chain data — that is what the GreeksView desk does with your own broker keys.

Frequently asked questions

What is the maximum loss on an iron condor?
The width of your widest spread minus the net credit received, multiplied by 100 per contract. With $10-wide spreads and a $4.00 credit, the most you can lose is $600 per condor. That loss occurs anywhere below your long put strike or above your long call strike — it does not keep growing beyond those points, which is what the long options are for.
Where are the breakeven points on an iron condor?
There are two. The lower breakeven is the short put strike minus the net credit; the upper is the short call strike plus the net credit. With shorts at 590 and 610 and a $4.00 credit, you break even at 586.00 and 614.00. Between those two prices the position makes money; outside them it loses.
Why does the calculator show a bigger loss than profit?
That is the normal shape of an iron condor, not an error. You are selling a high-probability outcome, so the market pays you less than you risk. The trade is justified by how often price finishes between the short strikes, not by the size of the payoff. If a condor ever offers more profit than risk, check the strikes — something is unusual about that chain.
Should both spreads be the same width?
Usually yes. Your maximum loss is set by the widest spread, so pairing a $10-wide put spread with a $5-wide call spread means carrying $10 of risk while collecting premium closer to a narrower structure. Equal widths keep risk symmetric and make the payoff diagram read the way most traders expect.
Does this account for commissions and assignment risk?
No. The numbers here are gross of fees, and a four-leg position means four commissions to open and potentially four to close — meaningful against a $400 credit. It also assumes you hold to expiry; American-style short options can be assigned early, particularly around ex-dividend dates on the call side.
Is this the same math GreeksView uses?
Yes, literally. This page loads the same P/L module the trading desk runs, covered by the same test suite. There is no second implementation that could quietly disagree with the product about what your position pays.

Run this against a live chain

GreeksView builds condors from real option chains with live Greeks, gamma exposure and what-if scenarios — in your browser, on your own broker keys.

Start free — no card required
Bring your own Alpaca and Finnhub keys. Free tier has no time limit.