📊 Stock Options Profit & Breakeven Simulator
Calculate net profit, loss, breakeven stock prices, and return on capital for Long Call and Long Put stock options contracts at expiration. 100% free.
Quoted per share; one contract is 100 shares.
Payoff at expiry
| Share price | Profit or loss | |
|---|---|---|
| $60.00 | −$450 | |
| $68.00 | −$450 | |
| $76.00 | −$450 | |
| $84.00 | −$450 | |
| $92.00 | −$450 | |
| $100.00 | −$450 | |
| $108.00 | $350 | |
| $116.00 | $1,150 | |
| $124.00 | $1,950 | |
| $132.00 | $2,750 | |
| $140.00 | $3,550 |
Payoff at expiry only. Before expiry an option also carries time value, and it decays — which is why a position can be right about direction and still lose money. Implied volatility moves the premium independently of the share price, commissions and assignment fees are excluded, early assignment is possible on American-style options, and dividends change the calculus on calls. Nothing here is investment advice.
What Stock Options Profit & Breakeven Simulator Does
An option is a contract on 100 shares. A call gives the holder the right to buy at the strike price; a put gives the right to sell at it. The buyer pays a premium for that right and the seller receives it, and the payoff at expiry follows entirely from where the share price lands relative to the strike.
The asymmetry between buying and selling is the thing worth understanding before anything else. A buyer's loss is capped at the premium and their gain on a call is unbounded. A seller has that exactly reversed: the maximum gain is the premium received, and on a naked call the loss has no ceiling, because a share price has no ceiling.
That is why a single profit figure at one price is not much use. The reason to model an option is to see the whole payoff — where it breaks even, what the worst case is, and how quickly it changes — which is what the table here shows.
One important limit on all of it: this is payoff at expiry. Before expiry an option also carries time value, which decays, and its price moves with implied volatility independently of the share price. A position can be right about direction and still lose money, and that is not captured by an expiry payoff.
How to Use Stock Options Profit & Breakeven Simulator
- Select Long Call (Bullish) or Long Put (Bearish) strategy
- Enter strike price, option premium paid per share, and contract quantity
- Input target stock price at expiration to compute net profit and ROI percentage
Formula Used by Stock Options Profit & Breakeven Simulator
Payoff at expiry, for all four positions
call intrinsic = max(0, price − strike) · put intrinsic = max(0, strike − price) · buyer profit = intrinsic × 100 × contracts − premium paid · seller profit = premium received − intrinsic × 100 × contracts
- breakeven
- strike + premium for a call, strike − premium for a put
- premium
- quoted per share; multiply by 100 for one contract
- intrinsic value
- what the option is worth if exercised now; never negative, because you would simply not exercise
Worked example
One call, strike $100, premium $4.50, share price $115 at expiry.
- Premium paid: 4.50 × 100 = $450
- Intrinsic at expiry: 115 − 100 = $15 per share
- Contract value: 15 × 100 = $1,500
Result: $1,050 profit, and breakeven at $104.50. The seller of that same contract loses $1,050.
The four positions, and what each risks
The rows differ far more in their downside than in their upside.
| Position | View | Maximum gain | Maximum loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy a call | Rises | Unlimited | The premium paid |
| Buy a put | Falls | (Strike − premium) × 100 | The premium paid |
| Sell a call | Does not rise | The premium received | Unlimited |
| Sell a put | Does not fall | The premium received | (Strike − premium) × 100 |
What moves an option price before expiry
None of these appear in an expiry payoff, and all of them affect what you can sell for today.
| Factor | Effect |
|---|---|
| Share price | The obvious one, and the only one in the payoff diagram |
| Time remaining | Decays toward zero, faster as expiry approaches |
| Implied volatility | Rising volatility raises both call and put prices |
| Interest rates | A small effect, larger on long-dated contracts |
| Dividends | Reduce call values and raise put values around the ex-date |
How to Read Your Result
A naked short call is the one to be careful with
Every other position has a floor. This one does not, because there is no upper bound on a share price. The premium received is the whole of the upside and the downside is open-ended, which is a shape worth understanding before rather than after. Selling calls against shares you already hold is a different and far more contained position.
Most of the value is time value, and it decays
An option that is out of the money has no intrinsic value at all — its entire price is time value, and that goes to zero at expiry. Buying options is therefore a race against the clock, which is why being right about direction but wrong about timing still loses.
Breakeven is not the strike
A call is profitable above strike plus premium, not above strike. Between the two, the option has intrinsic value but not enough to recover what you paid — a common misreading, and the reason the breakeven line is drawn separately here.
Exercise and assignment are not automatic
American-style options can be assigned early, particularly around a dividend. Brokers usually auto-exercise contracts that finish in the money by a small margin, which can leave you holding shares you did not intend to buy. Know your broker's threshold.
Limitations & Accuracy Notes
- Payoff at expiry only. No option pricing model, so it says nothing about what a contract is worth today.
- Time decay, implied volatility, interest rates and dividends are all excluded.
- Commissions, exercise and assignment fees are not included, and they matter on small positions.
- Assumes a standard 100-share contract; some products differ, and adjusted contracts after a split or merger differ too.
- Single-leg positions only. Spreads, straddles and other combinations are not modeled.
- Nothing here is investment advice. Options can lose their entire value, and short positions can lose more than the account holds.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Call Option profit calculated?
How is Put Option breakeven calculated?
What is a strike price?
What is a vesting cliff?
What is the tax difference between ISOs and NSOs?
Should I exercise early?
Is this tax or investment advice?
References & Further Reading
- US SEC Investor.gov — options — What options are and the risks the regulator highlights
- OCC — Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options — The disclosure document US brokers are required to provide before options trading