About OptionLab

What you can do with OptionLab

An options position is hard to judge from a list of strikes and premiums alone. OptionLab shows where a position makes money, where it loses money and how much is at stake, so you can examine it before you act.

• Build single-leg and multi-leg positions from calls and puts, bought or sold
• See a position's profit-and-loss (payoff) graph
• Find its breakeven points, maximum profit and maximum loss
• Estimate theoretical option prices and Greeks with the Black-Scholes model
• Compare how common strategies are structured and where their risk lies

Free options calculators

Two calculators run directly in your browser, with no signup:

• Options Profit Calculator — enter a single option or a multi-leg position and see its payoff at expiration, breakeven points, net debit or credit, and the maximum profit and maximum loss, including when either is unlimited.
• Black-Scholes Calculator — enter the spot price, strike price, days to expiration, volatility and risk-free rate to get a theoretical call or put price, along with Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega and Rho.

Options strategy guides

OptionLab's strategy guides cover eight common options strategies: the long butterfly spread, iron condor, covered call, bull call spread, straddle, calendar spread, iron butterfly and diagonal spread. Each guide includes a payoff chart and a Key Facts summary of the strategy's market outlook, construction, maximum profit, maximum loss, breakeven points and behavior at expiration. The strategies overview also compares all eight in a single table.

Five of the guides — the long butterfly, iron condor, bull call spread, straddle and iron butterfly — include a worked example calculated with the same payoff engine as the Options Profit Calculator. Their premiums are theoretical Black-Scholes values for an illustrative setup (an underlying price of $100, 30 days to expiration, 25% implied volatility and a 5% risk-free rate), not live market quotes.

Where the numbers come from

The public calculators use only the numbers you enter; they do not use live market data. Where OptionLab calculates theoretical option values, it uses the Black-Scholes model, so those values depend on the model's assumptions — especially the volatility you enter.

In the OptionLab strategy builder, market data availability and timing can vary. You can also enter your own prices and assumptions for analysis. Before acting on any number, check prices with your broker or an official market-data source.

Important limitations

• Payoff results describe a position at expiration. Before expiration an option also has time value, so its market price — and the result of closing early — will usually differ.
• Theoretical prices are model estimates for European-style options, not quotes, and can differ from prices in the market.
• The Options Profit Calculator assumes every leg shares one expiration date, and lists breakevens found within the displayed price range.
• Calculator results do not include commissions, fees, taxes, margin or early assignment.

What OptionLab is — and isn't

OptionLab is an analytical and educational tool. It is not an investment adviser, broker, exchange, trading platform or portfolio manager, and nothing on OptionLab should be treated as investment or trading advice. It is there to help you understand a position; the decision to trade, and its outcome, remain yours.