Bull Call Spread Calculator

Bull Call Spread

A bull call spread is a defined-risk options strategy used when you are moderately bullish on a stock. You buy a call at a lower strike (K1) and sell a call at a higher strike (K2) with the same expiration. The premium received for the sold call reduces the cost of the bought call.

Key levels:

P&L at expiration:

• Stock at or below K1: Full net premium lost (max loss)
• Stock between K1 and K2: Partial profit: P&L = (S - K1 - Net premium) × 100
• Stock at or above K2: Maximum profit locked in

Example:

• Buy 150 call at $8.00, sell 160 call at $3.00
• Net premium = $8.00 - $3.00 = $5.00 per share ($500 per contract)
• Breakeven = 150 + 5 = $155
• Max profit = (160 - 150 - 5) × 100 = $500 per contract
• Max loss = $500 per contract

Why use a bull call spread instead of buying a call outright?

• Costs less: the sold call offsets part of the premium
• Defined risk and defined reward: you know your max loss upfront
• Tradeoff: you cap your upside at K2, giving up gains above that level

When to use it:

• Moderately bullish: you expect the stock to rise but not dramatically
• Implied volatility is high: selling a call helps offset expensive premiums
• You want defined risk rather than unlimited upside

Why a bull call spread and a bear put spread are the same trade backwards

Buy the 150 call and sell the 160 call, and you have a bull call spread. Buy the 160 put and sell the 150 put, and you have a bear put spread on the same two strikes. Both are debits, and their payoffs are mirror images: wherever the stock finishes, the two add up to exactly the width of the spread.
Hold both at once and you own what traders call a box, which pays $1,000 per contract at expiry whatever the stock does.

Put-call parity turns that into a price you can check. The two debits have to add up to the spread width discounted back to today, not to the width itself:

Bull call debit + bear put debit = (K2 - K1) × e^(-rT)

At 5% for six months on a $10-wide spread that is $9.75, not $10. So the bull call spread’s maximum profit comes out about $25 per contract different from the bear put spread’s maximum loss. That gap is not an error in either calculator. It is the interest on $1,000 for six months, which is what the box earns you for paying for it up front.

One thing that is always true, whichever way you build it: max profit plus max loss equals the spread width times 100. If your numbers do not add up that way, something is entered wrong.