SPYEQUITY
—NO QUOTE
Equities
Futures
% r
% q

Futures 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
Spreads, straddles, condors, butterflies and futures spreads need Pro. 7 days free, then $9.99/month or $99/year.
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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.

Long one futures contract and short a related one, so what matters is the gap between them rather than where either goes on its own. Shocks common to both legs largely cancel, which is why exchanges margin a recognised spread far more cheaply than the same two contracts held apart. That relief is also the trap: carrying the position costs little, so it is easy to hold size the differential can move against faster than it seems it should. Set both legs here and read the margin requirement next to the widening of the spread that would consume it.

The full Futures Spread guide, worked example and FAQs →

Entered as a single exchange-recognized spread order rather than two separate futures trades, which is what earns the reduced margin — legging in manually gets charged the full margin on both legs until the exchange recognizes the pair. The spread's own bid/ask is usually tighter, relative to its value, than either outright leg's bid/ask, because market makers quote the differential directly rather than two independent prices. Rolling an existing calendar position is the same order type as opening a fresh spread; there is no separate "roll" ticket.

Sizing and account notes

The margin relief this earns from being entered as a single spread order disappears the moment either leg is closed independently, so exiting a spread as two separate orders briefly re-exposes the full outright margin on whichever leg is still open. Many venues quote the spread's own bid/ask directly rather than requiring the two legs to be priced separately, which is usually the tighter and more reliable way to see the real cost of entering or exiting. Because leverage here is much higher per dollar of margin than an outright position, sizing by margin required rather than by notional exposure understates the risk if the spread relationship itself breaks down.

Common mistake. The common mistake is legging out of the two contracts separately during an exit, which briefly loses the margin offset and the tight combined pricing that made the spread attractive to hold as one position.

At a glance

Legs
2
Market view
Relative value — non-directional
Opened for
Margin
What bounds the profit
Bounded by how far the differential can move
What bounds the loss
Bounded the same way, the other direction

The order ticket, from the worked example

#ActionInstrumentStrike
1BuyES Sep future5800
2SellES Dec future5845

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.

Spread (Sep − Dec)P&L
-75-$1500.00
-60-$750.00
-45$0.00
-30$750.00
-15$1500.00
0$2250.00

How this compares with related strategies

StrategyMarket viewOpened forLegs vs. this one
Futures Calendar SpreadTerm structure — non-directionalMarginsame
Futures Inter-Commodity SpreadRelative value — processing marginMargin+1
Futures OutrightDirectional — leveraged, linearMargin-1
Futures Basis TradeArbitrage — carry captureMarginsame