Iron Condor Calculator
Free, no login · By OptionClaws · Updated 2026-09-28
An iron condor sells a put spread below the stock and a call spread above it, collecting a credit that you keep if the stock stays between the short strikes. Enter the four strikes, their premiums, and the days to expiration, and this calculator shows the net credit, max profit, max loss, both breakevens, return on risk, annualized return, and a model-based probability of profit, with a payoff chart of the whole range. It works on the numbers you type, in your browser.
Illustrative inputs; enter your own. Results are calculated in your browser from the numbers you enter.
Find these trades across the market
The OptionClaws scanner runs this same math on real option chains and ranks every candidate by return, probability, and liquidity.
7-day free trial, no card needed. Scans require a trial or subscription.
How to use the iron condor calculator
- Enter the stock price and the implied volatility you want to model.
- Enter the four strikes from lowest to highest: the long put (lower wing), the short put, the short call, and the long call (upper wing).
- Enter each leg's premium per share. Use the mid or your expected fill from your broker's chain; the credit is what you receive for the two short legs minus what you pay for the two wings.
- Enter the days to expiration shared by all four legs and the number of condors.
- Check the results: the credit, the max loss, the two breakevens, and how much room they leave around the stock price.
How it's calculated
The payoff at expiration is the sum of the four legs, each worth its intrinsic value minus its premium, with short legs counted negatively. Between the short strikes every option expires worthless and you keep the full credit. Past a short strike the loss grows one dollar per dollar of stock movement until the long wing caps it.
The calculator uses the same payoff, breakeven, and probability functions as the OptionClaws iron condor scanner, so the numbers match how a scan scores a condor.
- Net credit: short put premium plus short call premium, minus long put premium and long call premium, times 100.
- Max profit: the net credit times 100, earned if the stock finishes between the short strikes.
- Max loss: (the wider wing's width minus the net credit) times 100, where a wing's width is the distance between its short and long strikes.
- Breakevens: short put strike minus the credit, and short call strike plus the credit.
- Return on risk: max profit divided by max loss. Annualized return: that times 365 over days to expiration.
- Margin required: equal to the max loss, since both sides are defined-risk spreads.
- Probability of profit: the lognormal-model chance the stock finishes between the two breakevens, using your implied volatility and a 4.5% risk-free rate.
Assumptions and limitations
- The payoff is at expiration only. Before expiration a condor is worth more or less than the chart shows because the options still have time value.
- Probability of profit comes from a model with one implied volatility for every strike. Real option chains have skew, and stocks can gap through a short strike.
- Early assignment on a short leg, dividends, fees, and commissions are excluded.
- All four legs share one expiration. For uneven expirations use the options profit calculator.
- Entered premiums are treated as fills. The defaults are illustrative estimates.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you calculate max loss on an iron condor?
- Take the wider of the two wings (short strike to long strike), subtract the net credit, and multiply by 100. With $5 wings and a $0.75 credit, the max loss is $4.25 times 100, or $425 per condor.
- Where are the breakevens on an iron condor?
- There are two: the short put strike minus the net credit, and the short call strike plus the net credit. A $90/$110 condor for a $0.75 credit breaks even at $89.25 and $110.75.
- Can both sides of an iron condor lose at once?
- Not at expiration. The stock can only finish in one place, so at most one side is in the money. That is why the max loss uses only the wider wing and the margin requirement equals that loss.
- Why is the probability of profit high but the return on risk low?
- A condor trades a small credit for a wide profit zone. Moving the short strikes further out raises the modeled probability and lowers the credit, so the two numbers move in opposite directions. Neither alone tells you whether a trade is good.
- Does the calculator handle unbalanced wings?
- Yes. Enter any four strikes. Max loss uses the wider wing, and the chart shows the lopsided payoff.
Related
For education only, not investment advice. Results are model-based estimates from the inputs you enter and exclude fees, early assignment, and dividends. Options involve substantial risk and are not suitable for every investor. See our Terms of Service.