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Bullish

Call Bull Spread

Call Bull Spread

Components

Long one call option with a low strike price and short one call option with a higher strike price.

Risk / Reward

Maximum Loss: Limited to premium paid for the long option minus the premium received for the short option.

Maximum Gain: Limited to the difference between the two strike prices minus the net premium paid for the spread.

Characteristics

When to use: When you are mildly bullish on market price and/or volatility.

You can see from the above graph that a call bull spread can only be worth as much as the difference between the two strike prices. So, when putting on a bull spread remember that the wider the strikes the more you can make. But the downside to this is that you will end up paying more for the spread. So, the deeper in the money calls you buy relative to the call options that you sell means a greater maximum loss if the market sells off.

Like I mentioned, a call bull spread is a very cost effective way to take a position when you are bullish on market direction. The cost of the bought call option will be partially offset by the premium received by the sold call option. This does, however, limit your potential gain if the market does rally but also reduces the cost of entering into this position.

This type of strategy is suited to investors who want to go long on market direction and also have an upside target in mind. The sold call acts as a profit target for the position. So, if the trader sees a short term move in an underlying but doesn't see the market going past $X, then a bull spread is ideal. With a bull spread he can easily go long without the added expenditure of an outright long stock and can even reduce the cost by selling the additional call option.

Comments page 1 of 1
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Peter
Posted 189 days ago
Hi Rahul, in the payoff graphs for each strategy you will see a pink coloured line, which represents the non-linear payoff of the option component.

Is this what you mean?
Peter
Posted 189 days ago
Hi Dhaka, I would say Option Volatility and Pricing by Sheldon Natenberg.
rahul pandey
Posted 190 days ago
options has non linear payoff. futures has linear ones. both combined generates more complex payoffs . can u give some more inf. regarding payoffs
DHAKA
Posted 191 days ago
HIi plz suggest me a book for [OPTION TRADING] which is best in all.
Peter
Posted 234 days ago
Ideally you would do the trades at the same time via a "spread trade", however, if your broker's system doesn't allow that then you can "leg" into the strategy by completing one side first.
victor
Posted 235 days ago
do you long a call option and short the other at the same time or do you first long a call and then short the other call after the stock moves up.

thanks victor