Unit 3 · Level 2 · Iron condors & range trades
Defined risk, both sides
Take a condor with €5-wide wings sold for a €2 total credit. If the stock blows through one side, that spread can lose at most its €5 width (minus the €2 you collected), so €3 per share is the absolute worst case. And because the stock can't finish beyond both wings at once, only one side can ever reach max loss. Compare that with a naked strangle, where one gap-open can cost anything. The condor's box has a floor.
Free to play. No ads, no token, no account needed to start.
What you get asked
Your iron condor has €5-wide wings and collected a €1.50 total credit. What is the maximum loss per share, in €?
Max loss = wing width − total credit = €5 − €1.50 = €3.50. The whole credit counts against the losing side, since the other side expires worthless.
Why can only ONE side of an iron condor ever hit max loss?
One price at expiry: it's either too high, too low, or in the middle. Mutually exclusive outcomes are what let you count the full credit against the losing side.
Condor max loss = wing width minus the total ___ collected.
Same formula as a single credit spread from Unit 1. The second side's credit just makes the cushion a little thicker.
A typical condor risks €3.50 to make €1.50. In the Trading course's risk:reward language, that is…
Trend traders want 2:1 reward-to-risk and accept losing often; condor sellers accept 1:2.3 against them and expect to win often. Both can work. Only the honest maths decides.
Match where the stock expires to the condor's result
The payoff diagram looks like a flat-topped table with two sloping edges and hard floors. Learn the shape and the numbers place themselves. 🐜
The rest of this unit
Selling both tails at once: profiting from boredom, with the risk boxed in.