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Futures
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Covered Call Calculator

How this strategy works →
AssistantPRO
Type a trade in plain English. A fine-tuned model returns the symbol, structure, expiry and size — never a strike or a price.
RECORDED EXAMPLE1/3
“bull call spread on NVDA, 30 days, 2 contracts”
NVDAEQUITYBull Call Spread30d2×
Not a live answer. Captured from api.optionsandfuturescalculator.com on 2026-08-11 and replayed here — the assistant did not run just now. Type your own above and press Parse for a real one.
Trained on ES and NQ futures only — commodity roots are refused, not guessed.A bare futures directive (“Long NQ, 45 days”) often returns no parameters.Exercise style and averaging come from a keyword scan of your words.
Strategy47
Single-leg calls and puts are free
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Ticket
Averaging
Debit · 1 × 100—
Position · 0 legs
No legsSelect strikes from the option chain to build a position.
Exercise & Averaging
Exercise
Dividend yield is not modelled on this tree (drift is r − σ²/2). The strategy panel prices with a dividend yield; this panel does not.
Averaging
No resultPick a strike with a live quote to price the tree.
Saved
Nothing saved yetBuild a position, name it, and it will be here next time.
Probability Distribution
No distribution yetThe curve needs a live spot, an implied volatility off the option chain, and a real expiry. Add priced legs to draw it.
P&L matrixprice × date
price–
No grid yetAdd priced legs to compute P&L across price and date.
P&L surfaceprice × date × profit
Surface offTurn on 3D to see the position as a height field.
Option Chain
Outcome
No resultRun a calculation to see outcome, probability and Greeks.

A hundred shares you already own with a call sold against them. The premium is income and a thin cushion, and in return those shares are committed for sale at the strike for the life of the option. It is the most widely held options position and among the most widely misread: the risk sits in the stock underneath, not in the option, and one or two per cent of premium does not change what a holding can lose. Early assignment around an ex-dividend date is routine rather than exotic. Set the strike and expiry here and read the return if called away next to the drawdown the shares can still take.

The full Covered Call guide, worked example and FAQs →

Requires the 100 shares already held or bought in the same order as a 'buy-write' — most brokers offer that as a single combined ticket, avoiding being filled on the stock and not the call in a fast market. The strike is the only real decision once the shares are owned; a higher strike sells for less premium and leaves more room for the stock to run before being called away. Because assignment can happen any time the call is in the money, not only at expiry, treat the shares as sold the moment the strike is comfortably exceeded.

Sizing and account notes

Selling calls against shares held in a tax-advantaged account avoids the wash-sale and short-term-gain complications that repeated assignment can create in a taxable one, which is one reason this structure is disproportionately common in retirement accounts. Rolling the call out and up before expiry — buying back the near option and selling a later, higher-strike one — is the standard way to keep the shares through a rally that would otherwise trigger assignment, usually at a net debit. Selling calls against only part of a holding, rather than the whole position, is a common way to keep some uncapped upside while still collecting some premium.

Common mistake. The common mistake is selling calls against a core long-term holding and then being surprised at assignment during a rally, treating a structure built to cap upside as though the upside were still fully open.

At a glance

Legs
2
Market view
Neutral to mildly bullish — income
Opened for
Debit or credit
What bounds the profit
Capped: the strike plus the premium
What bounds the loss
The full downside of the shares, less the premium

The order ticket, from the worked example

#ActionInstrumentStrike
1HoldShares ×100—
2SellCall240

Payoff at expiry, across a price grid

Computed from the same strikes and net premium as the worked example above — not a simulation, the closed-form payoff evaluated at each price.

AAPL at expiryP&L
180-$3590.00
200-$1590.00
220$410.00
240$2410.00
260$2410.00
280$2410.00

How this compares with related strategies

StrategyMarket viewOpened forLegs vs. this one
Cash-Secured PutNeutral to bullish — income or acquisitionCredit-1
CollarNeutral — hedged, boundedDebit or credit+1
Covered Futures CallNeutral to mildly bullish — futures incomeMarginsame
Bear Call SpreadBearish to neutral — incomeCreditsame