SPYEQUITY
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Futures
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Diagonal Spread 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.

Sell a near-dated option at one strike and buy a longer-dated one at another. Both dimensions are mismatched on purpose: the expiry gap harvests decay, the strike gap adds a directional lean, and how far apart the strikes sit decides which of the two dominates the result. Widened out with a deep in-the-money back month it becomes a stock substitute funded by selling the front month again and again, behaving much like covered stock on a fraction of the capital. Price both legs here and check what the back month is worth if the front is assigned early, which is the case that breaks the financing.

The full Diagonal Spread guide, worked example and FAQs →

Two options at two different strikes and two different expiries — one order on most platforms, structurally similar to the calendar spread's ticket but with an added strike decision. The strike gap is chosen first, based on how much directional lean is wanted, and the expiry gap second, based on how much decay the short leg should harvest before the position needs revisiting; treating the two choices as independent avoids accidentally building a stock-replacement position when a pure calendar was intended.

Sizing and account notes

The 'poor man's covered call' variant — a deep in-the-money long-dated call standing in for shares — ties up meaningfully less capital than owning the stock outright, which is the entire appeal, but it also means the position can be closed out by the option's own bid/ask liquidity rather than by the (usually deeper) liquidity of the underlying shares. Rolling the short near leg forward as it approaches expiry, repeatedly, is how this is run as an ongoing position rather than a single trade; each roll is its own combined order with its own execution cost. Assignment on the short leg against a long-dated back leg is not a closed position and may require the capital to hold the resulting stock or futures at short notice.

Common mistake. The common mistake is choosing the strike gap and the expiry gap as one combined decision rather than two, which tends to build an accidental stock-replacement position out of what was meant as a pure calendar.

At a glance

Legs
2
Market view
Directional — with a time component
Opened for
Debit
What bounds the profit
No closed form — model-dependent
What bounds the loss
Bounded only if the long leg dominates at every price

The order ticket, from the worked example

#ActionInstrumentStrike
1SellCall (21d)595
2BuyCall (60d)585

No price grid is shown here: this structure has no closed-form payoff at expiry — the back leg is still alive and has to be valued by a model. Use the payoff curve in the calculator above.

How this compares with related strategies

StrategyMarket viewOpened forLegs vs. this one
Calendar SpreadNeutral — long volatility of timeDebitsame
Bull Call SpreadBullish — moderate, defined rangeDebitsame
Covered CallNeutral to mildly bullish — incomeDebit or creditsame
Call CondorNeutral — range-boundDebit+2