BULL CALL & BEAR PUT SPREADS

Bull call spreads and bear put spreads also are called vertical spreads because they occur in the same month and they have two different strikes. Unlike with the covered call strategy, your risk with the bull and bear spread strategies is more easily quantified, says Joe Burgoyne, director of institutional and retail marketing at the Options Industry Council.

bull call spread

In a bull call spread, you buy a call on the underlying asset while simultaneously writing (selling) a call on the same underlying asset with the same expiration month at a higher strike price. You should use it when you think the market will go up somewhat, or think it’s more likely to rise than fall (in other words, you have a bullish or moderately bullish outlook). Your likelihood for profit is limited, as is your risk, because the price paid for the call with the lower strike price is partially offset by the premium received from writing the call with a higher strike price, so you have less risk of losing the entire premium paid for the call.

bear put spread

In a bear put spread, you buy a put on an underlying asset while writing a put on the same underlying asset with the same expiration month, but at a lower strike price. You should use this strategy when you think the market will fall somewhat or is more likely to fall than rise, as you’re capitalizing on a decrease in the price of the underlying asset.