SPYEQUITY
—NO QUOTE
Equities
Futures
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% q

Iron Butterfly 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.

An iron condor with its two short strikes collapsed together at the money: sell the straddle, buy a wing on each side of it. The credit is far larger than a condor pays and the band in which you keep it is far narrower, so this is a statement about where the underlying settles rather than merely that it stays put. Maximum profit occurs at one price and falls away steeply on both sides. Short at-the-money options also carry real early-assignment risk as expiry approaches. Price the body and the wings here and look at the width of the profitable band before you look at the size of the credit.

The full Iron Butterfly guide, worked example and FAQs →

The short call and short put share one strike, so the order is really three distinct strikes rather than four — fill quality on that single at-the-money strike matters more here than in a condor, since both short legs depend on it. Widening the wings raises the maximum loss and lowers it as a fraction of the credit, the one dial available once the centre strike is fixed by where the underlying happens to be trading. Assignment risk on the short straddle at the centre is worth planning for before expiry week, not during it.

Sizing and account notes

Because the credit is large relative to the width, the margin required is smaller as a fraction of the position's notional risk than a comparable iron condor's — but the range that keeps it is also much narrower, so the higher credit-to-margin ratio is compensation for a lower probability of finishing inside the range, not a free improvement. Pin risk at the shared centre strike is worth planning an exit around before expiry week; many traders close both short legs a day or two early specifically to avoid an ambiguous assignment at the close.

Common mistake. The common mistake is holding through expiry week hoping for the exact pin, when closing a day or two early for most of the credit avoids the assignment ambiguity at the shared centre strike.

At a glance

Legs
3
Market view
Neutral — pinned
Opened for
Credit
What bounds the profit
Capped: the credit, only exactly at the centre
What bounds the loss
Capped: wing width minus the credit

The order ticket, from the worked example

#ActionInstrumentStrike
1SellCall + Put580
2BuyPut560
3BuyCall600

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.

SPY at expiryP&L
550-$1080.00
565-$580.00
580$920.00
595-$580.00
610-$1080.00
625-$1080.00

How this compares with related strategies

StrategyMarket viewOpened forLegs vs. this one
Iron CondorNeutral — range-boundCredit+1
Call ButterflyNeutral — pinnedDebitsame
Long StraddleVolatility — direction-agnosticDebit-1
Bull Put SpreadBullish to neutral — incomeCredit-1