Free strategy guides

Eleven option structures, explained properly

How each one is built, what its payoff actually looks like at expiry, where it breaks even, what assignment does to it, and what it costs when it goes against you — that last part stated as plainly as the rest.

These guides explain how each structure is built and how it behaves. Nothing here is a suggestion to buy or sell anything, no security is named, no figure is quoted from any market, and no structure is presented as better than another — which one suits a situation is not a question this page can answer.

Frequently asked questions

Are these options strategy guides free?

Yes, entirely. There is no payment, no card, no paywall and no account needed to read any of them — including the payoff diagrams and the worked examples. The free account on this site unlocks the calculators and the prompt library; the guides are open to everyone, including search engines.

Do these guides tell me which strategy to use?

No, and that is deliberate rather than an omission. Each guide explains how a structure is built, what its payoff looks like at expiry, where it breaks even and what it costs when it goes wrong. Which structure suits a particular holding, account size or objective depends on facts these pages have no access to. Nothing here names a security, quotes a figure from any market, or presents one structure as better than another.

Do the examples use real stocks?

No. Every worked example uses XYZ, a placeholder, priced at $100 so that the eleven structures can be compared directly against each other. A real ticker in a worked example reads as a suggestion however it is captioned, which is not what these pages are for, and a fixed placeholder price makes the numbers comparable across guides in a way that eleven different underlyings would not.

Do these pages show live market prices?

No. Nothing in this section connects to any market feed, and no page displays a current price, index level or volatility reading. Every figure in every worked example is a made-up number on a placeholder underlying, chosen so the structures can be compared against each other. Nothing here knows what day it is, which is deliberate: explaining how a structure works and telling you when to use it are different jobs, and only the first one is what these pages do.

Are these guides suitable for beginners?

The first three — the covered call, the cash-secured put and the wheel — assume only that you know what a share is, and they are ordered that way on purpose. The defined-risk spreads and the diagonal structures build on those, and each guide states what it assumes in its opening lines. Every one of them includes what the position loses as prominently as what it makes.