Strategies · Lesson 01 of 14 · Lab
Bull call spread
A bull call spread buys one call and sells a higher one, capping both the cost and the gain. On the NIFTY chain of 22 September 2026 the 23,350/23,500 spread cost ₹104.00, could make at most ₹46.00, and broke even at 23,454. The index closed at 23,329 and the spread lost the full ₹104.00.
NIFTY weekly expiry, 22 September 2026 · MarketCue one-minute option-chain capture
Build it
A chain that actually traded, priced at the open. Click once to buy, twice to sell, a third time to clear.
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. Bought 23,350 CE at ₹140.00 → settled ₹0.05. Sold 23,500 CE at ₹36.00 → settled ₹0.05. Net loss of ₹104.00 per unit, or −100% of what was put up. This was the expiry, so those closing prices are settlement values.
What the sold leg buys you
The long call alone cost ₹140.00 on that chain. Selling the 23,500 call brought ₹36.00 back, reducing the outlay to ₹104.00 — and in exchange, everything above 23,500 belongs to the buyer of that call rather than to you.
Switch between the first two presets to see the trade in one movement: the payoff line stops rising at 23,500 and the whole shape drops by ₹36.00. The cap and the discount are the same decision.
The wider preset sells three strikes out instead of one. The cost climbs back towards the naked call and so does the ceiling, which is the entire adjustment available in this structure.
What it did
Breakeven sat at 23,454 — the long strike plus the net debit. NIFTY opened at 23,460, five points above it, and closed at 23,329.
Both calls expired worthless and the spread lost its full ₹104.00. The sold leg did its job: without it the loss would have been ₹140.00. That is the only thing the short call can ever do on a losing day, and it is worth exactly the premium it collected.
Common questions
What is a bull call spread?
A two-leg structure that part-funds its long call by writing a higher one. Everything above the sold strike is surrendered in exchange for a smaller outlay — on the 22 September 2026 chain, ₹104.00 rather than the ₹140.00 the call alone cost, with the gain stopping at ₹46.00.
How do you calculate bull call spread breakeven?
Add what you paid to the strike you bought. The 23,350/23,500 pair cost ₹104.00, so it needed a close above 23,454 to return anything. NIFTY finished at 23,329.
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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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