SPYEQUITY
—NO QUOTE
Equities
Futures
% r
% q

Protective Put 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.

Shares held long with a put bought against them. Below the strike the put gains as the stock falls, so the holding has a floor under it; above the strike the upside runs on, less whatever the protection cost. This is insurance in the exact sense of the word, including the part where most premiums paid are never seen again. The real questions are how far below the market to place the floor and how long to insure for, because rolling short-dated protection is expensive and long-dated protection is thin. Price the strike and expiry here and read the protected loss against the premium buying it.

The full Protective Put guide, worked example and FAQs →

One leg added to an existing holding, so the only decision on the ticket is the strike and the expiry — but the strike choice is really about how much of the current unrealized gain, if any, you are willing to let the floor sit below. A shorter-dated put costs less per trade but has to be rolled more often, and each roll re-prices against whatever implied volatility is current at the time, which is exactly the opposite of a cost you control by choosing dates in advance.

Sizing and account notes

Buying protection after a decline means paying elevated implied volatility for it, so many holders set a standing rule to buy the put before a specific date or event rather than reacting to a drop already underway, which is usually the more expensive moment to insure. A married put — buying the shares and the put on the same day — is treated differently for the holding-period clock in some tax jurisdictions than a put purchased against shares already held; check the specific rule before assuming the position resets nothing. Rolling protection down as the underlying rises locks in some of the gain without fully removing the hedge.

Common mistake. The common mistake is buying protection only after a decline has already started, paying the elevated implied volatility that decline itself created rather than insuring while premiums were still ordinary.

At a glance

Legs
2
Market view
Bullish — hedged
Opened for
Debit
What bounds the profit
Uncapped, less the premium paid
What bounds the loss
Capped: the floor set by the strike

The order ticket, from the worked example

#ActionInstrumentStrike
1HoldShares ×100—
2BuyPut165

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.

NVDA at expiryP&L
130-$1180.00
150-$1180.00
165-$1180.00
180$320.00
200$2320.00
220$4320.00

How this compares with related strategies

StrategyMarket viewOpened forLegs vs. this one
CollarNeutral — hedged, boundedDebit or credit+1
Long PutBearish — directional, or a hedgeDebit-1
Covered CallNeutral to mildly bullish — incomeDebit or creditsame
Long CallBullish — directionalDebit-1