Strategies · Lesson 13 of 14 · Lab
Bear call ladder
A bear call ladder sells one call and buys two higher ones at different strikes, so the position loses in a middle band and gains without limit above the highest. On 22 September 2026 the NIFTY 23,400/23,500/23,600 ladder collected ₹56.90, with a maximum loss of ₹43.10 and breakevens at 23,457 and 23,644. The index closed at 23,329 and it kept ₹56.95.
NIFTY weekly expiry, 22 September 2026 · MarketCue one-minute option-chain capture
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Prices captured at the open on Tuesday, 22 September 2026. NIFTY spot at the open: 23,460. The highlighted row is nearest the money.
NIFTY closed at 23,329, down 131 points from the open. Sold 23,400 CE at ₹100.50 → settled ₹0.05. Bought 23,500 CE at ₹36.00 → settled ₹0.05. Bought 23,600 CE at ₹7.60 → settled ₹0.05. Net gain of ₹56.95 per unit, or +100% of what was put up. This was the expiry, so those closing prices are settlement values.
One of the few structures that reverses
Selling the 23,400 call brought ₹100.50; buying the 23,500 and 23,600 calls cost ₹43.60 together. The ₹56.90 credit is kept if the index stays below 23,400.
Between roughly 23,457 and 23,644 the structure loses, worst at 23,500 where the sold call is deep in the money and only one long leg has started to help. Above 23,644 both long calls are working against one short and the position gains without limit.
A position that is bearish at one price and bullish at another is unusual, and it is the reason the ladder exists: it keeps the credit on a decline while removing the unbounded upside risk a plain credit spread carries.
What it did
The index closed at 23,329, below every strike. All three calls settled at ₹0.05 and the structure retained ₹56.95.
Compare against the two-leg preset. The plain bear call spread collected the same ₹56.90 on this session and also kept it — the third leg cost nothing here because the index never approached the region where it matters. Its value is entirely in sessions this one does not contain.
Common questions
What is a bear call ladder?
Selling one call and buying two calls at higher strikes. It keeps the credit below the sold strike, loses in a middle band, and gains without limit above the highest strike.
Why add a third leg to a bear call spread?
To remove the unbounded loss above the sold strike. The extra long call turns the far upside from an open-ended loss into an open-ended gain, at the cost of a wider losing band in the middle.
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How these figures are produced
Every price on these pages was traded on the exchange and is read from our own option-chain capture, which records the NIFTY and SENSEX chains once a minute through the session. Each page names the session its figures come from.
Figures that a model produced rather than the market — the Greeks, implied volatility — are labelled as model outputs wherever they appear, and never presented beside traded prices without saying which is which. The pricing is checked against published reference values on every change.
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