Strategies · Lesson 12 of 14 · Lab
Put ratio back spread
A put ratio back spread sells one put and buys two lower ones, paying on a large fall and losing in a band just below the sold strike. On 22 September 2026, selling the NIFTY 23,450 put and buying two 23,350 puts collected ₹9.55 with a maximum loss of ₹90.45 at 23,350. The index closed at 23,329 and it lost ₹69.70.
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. Bought 23,350 PE at ₹12.65 → settled ₹20.95. Sold 23,450 PE at ₹34.85 → settled ₹121.15. Net loss of ₹69.70 per unit, or −730% of what was put up. This was the expiry, so those closing prices are settlement values.
The same shape, pointed down
Selling the 23,450 put brought ₹34.85 and buying two 23,350 puts cost ₹25.30, for a ₹9.55 credit. Above 23,450 nothing is exercised and the credit is retained.
The worst outcome sits at the long strike. At 23,350 the sold put is 100 points in the money and the two bought puts are worth nothing, which costs ₹90.45 after the credit. Below that the pair of long puts gains at twice the rate of the short one and the position turns.
It landed in the dip
NIFTY closed at 23,329 — 21 points below the long strike, and almost exactly where this structure does worst. The sold 23,450 put settled at ₹121.15 against the two 23,350 puts at ₹20.95 each, leaving a loss of ₹69.70.
The second breakeven was 23,260. The index would have needed another 69 points of decline to reach the region the structure is built for. A back spread that is directionally right and finishes in its own trough is the characteristic failure of the shape, and this session is a clean example of it.
Common questions
What is a put ratio back spread?
Selling one put and buying two at a lower strike. It profits from a large decline, keeps the credit if the underlying stays above the sold strike, and loses most at the long strike.
Why did a put back spread lose on a falling day?
Because the fall stopped inside the structure’s loss band. On 22 September 2026 the index closed at 23,329 against a lower breakeven of 23,260 — directionally right, and 69 points short of the region that pays.
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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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