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Options profit & loss calculator
see the payoff before you trade

Build any position up to four legs — spreads, straddles, butterflies, or a single call. You get max profit, max loss, every breakeven and the full payoff curve, recalculated as you type by the same P/L engine inside the GreeksView desk.

Max profit

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best case at expiry

Max loss

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worst case at expiry

Breakevens

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where the position turns even

P/L at spot

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if it expired right here

Build your position

Set a leg's contracts to 0 to leave it out.

Underlying price

Start from

Profit at expiry Loss at expiry Breakeven Strikes & spot

How options P/L is calculated

Every options payoff at expiry comes from one idea: an option is worth only its intrinsic value on the last day. Time value is gone. What you make or lose is that intrinsic value against what you paid or collected.

Call intrinsic = max(0, price − strike) Put intrinsic = max(0, strike − price) Long leg P/L = (intrinsic − premium paid) × contracts × 100 Short leg P/L = (premium collected − intrinsic) × contracts × 100 Position P/L = sum of every leg

The ×100 is the contract multiplier: one standard equity option covers 100 shares, so a $1.00 premium is $100 of real money. Multi-leg positions are just the sum — which is why a four-leg condor is no harder to price than a single call.

Reading the diagram

The bends are your strikes. The payoff line changes slope at every strike, because that is where an option starts having intrinsic value.
Flat sections mean capped. Where the line goes horizontal, further price movement changes nothing — you have hit max profit or max loss.
Rising or falling at the edges means unbounded. A line still climbing at the right edge is unlimited upside; still falling on the left is unlimited risk.
Breakevens are where it crosses zero. Some positions have two, and a butterfly has two very close together.

This is expiry, not today. Between now and expiry your position is priced by the market, not by this curve. Time decay, volatility changes and interest all move the mark. A long option can be down 40% with the stock exactly where you predicted, simply because implied volatility fell.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate profit and loss on an options trade?

At expiry, work out each leg's intrinsic value — max(0, price − strike) for a call, max(0, strike − price) for a put — then compare it to the premium. A long leg makes intrinsic minus what you paid; a short leg makes what you collected minus intrinsic. Multiply each by contracts and by 100, then add the legs together. Before expiry it is different: your position is marked at market prices, which include time value.

Can this calculator predict my actual profit?

It shows exactly what the position pays at expiry for any underlying price — that part is arithmetic, not prediction. What it cannot do is tell you where the price will land, and it does not model the path in between. Treat it as a map of outcomes, not a forecast of which one happens.

Why does my broker show a loss when the calculator shows a profit?

Almost always because you are comparing a mark-to-market value against an expiry value. Before expiry your options still carry time value, and your broker prices them at what the market will pay right now. Implied volatility falling, or simply time passing, can show a loss on a position that would be profitable if expiry were today.

What does unlimited risk mean here?

That the payoff line is still falling at the edge of the chart rather than flattening. A naked short call is the classic case — there is no upper bound on the stock price, so there is no floor on the loss. When the calculator says unlimited rather than showing a number, that is a real answer, not a missing one.

Does it handle credit spreads and multi-leg positions?

Yes, up to four legs of any mix of calls and puts, long or short. Credit positions show a positive P/L across the middle of the range and losses at the wings; debit positions show the reverse. Set a leg's contracts to zero to leave it out — a two-leg vertical is just a four-leg builder with two legs empty.

Are commissions included?

No — every figure is gross. This matters most on multi-leg positions, where four legs to open and four to close is eight commissions against what may be a $200 credit. Check your broker's per-contract rate against the max profit shown here before deciding a trade is worth it.

Do this against real chains

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