Options Strategies
Ready to combine calls and puts into real, named strategies? A modern, visual, beginner-first course where every strategy comes with an authentic payoff diagram built from OpenAlgo's own strategy-builder maths on real market data - so you see exactly where you profit, where you lose, and where you break even, from simple spreads to the iron condor and beyond.
Why this course?
Most options-strategy material throws named structures at you with textbook diagrams that never match a real trade. This one is different: every strategy is explained for a beginner and drawn with an authentic payoff diagram from OpenAlgo's own strategy-builder maths on real market data. It is honest about the risk on each structure - defined or unlimited - and stresses defined risk first. The goal is to make you read any payoff with clear eyes and match a strategy to your view, so you can make your own informed decisions.
Reading a Strategy
The payoff diagram and the three numbers that describe any options strategy.
The Strategy Builder and the Payoff Diagram
Before any strategy, you need to read a payoff diagram. Learn what the curve shows, the expiry line versus the today line, and how OpenAlgo's strategy builder draws it from your legs.
Breakeven, Max Profit and Max Loss
Three numbers describe almost any strategy. Learn to find the breakeven, the maximum profit and the maximum loss on a payoff chart, and why defined risk matters most for a beginner.
Directional Spreads
Two-leg spreads that express a view with defined, capped risk.
The Bull Call Spread
A mildly bullish trade with a capped cost and a capped profit. Learn how buying one call and selling a higher one builds a cheaper, defined-risk way to be bullish, with the real payoff.
The Bull Put Spread
A bullish trade that pays you a credit upfront. Learn how selling a put and buying a lower one collects premium while capping the risk, and how it profits if the stock simply does not fall.
The Bear Call Spread
A bearish credit trade. Learn how selling a call and buying a higher one collects premium with defined risk, profiting if the stock stays below the short strike.
The Bear Put Spread
A defined-risk bearish trade. Learn how buying a put and selling a lower one builds a cheaper way to profit from a fall, with both profit and loss capped.
Volatility Strategies
Strategies that bet on a big move, or on calm, rather than on direction.
Long Straddle and Strangle: Betting on a Big Move
Sometimes you expect a large move but not which way. Learn the long straddle and strangle, buying both a call and a put, the two breakevens, and the time decay that fights you.
Short Straddle and Strangle: Betting on Calm
The opposite bet: that price stays pinned. Learn the short straddle and strangle, selling both sides to collect premium, the wide profit zone, and the unlimited risk that demands respect.
Range and Advanced
Four-leg and ratio structures with defined risk, and the synthetics.
The Iron Condor
The most popular income strategy. Learn how four legs build a wide profit zone that pays you if the stock stays in a range, with defined risk on both ends, on a real payoff.
The Iron Fly and the Butterfly
Tighter, higher-reward cousins of the condor. Learn the iron fly and the butterfly, which pay the most if the stock pins one strike, with the real payoff shapes.
Ratio Spreads and Back Spreads
Strategies with an unequal number of legs. Learn the ratio spread and the ratio back spread, where buying or selling extra options creates a tilt, and the unlimited risk to watch for.
Synthetics and the Covered Call
Options can copy a future, and pair with one. Learn the long synthetic (a call plus a short put that mimics a future) and the covered call (a holding plus a sold call for income).
The Jade Lizard and Other Combos
A neat credit structure with no upside risk. Learn the jade lizard, selling a put and a call spread so the credit removes the upside loss, and how named combos are just legs stacked cleverly.
Putting It Together
Funding a position with collateral, choosing the right strategy for your view, and managing it once it is on.
Margin and Collateral for F&O
Selling options and trading futures blocks margin, but you do not always need cash. Learn how the margin is built from SPAN and exposure, how the OpenAlgo margin calculator shows it, and which assets you can pledge as collateral instead of cash.
Pledging for Margin, Smartly
Pledging lets you trade on assets you already own without selling them. Learn how the haircut decides how much margin you get, why liquid collateral beats volatile stock, the interest cost of breaching the cash component, the covered-call trick, and the margin-call risk to respect.
Margins and Margin Penalties
The exchange checks your margin at random moments through the day, and a shortfall costs you a penalty. Learn the minimum margin rule, the peak-margin checks, the penalty slabs, and the everyday situations, like a short going against you or closing a hedge leg, that quietly trigger them.
Choosing a Strategy and Managing It
A strategy is only as good as the view behind it. Learn how to match a strategy to bullish, bearish or neutral views, size the position for survival, and adjust or exit when you are wrong.
For education only - not investment advice. 17 chapters, built on real payoff charts for beginners.