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. Sell the 150 put and buy the 160 put, and you have a bear put spread on the same two strikes. Those two positions have identical payoffs at every stock price. One is a debit and the other is a credit at the other end, but the economics are the same position.

Put-call parity makes that exact, and you can check it. 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 the money, and it is the reason the two strategies are not quite interchangeable in practice: one ties up more cash than the other for the same exposure.

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.