Jade Lizard Calculator
Model your jade lizard before you place it. Enter your strikes and premiums to instantly see max profit, max loss, breakeven, and a full P&L diagram for your jade lizard position.
How to Use This Calculator
Enter your three option legs and the calculator handles the rest. Results update instantly as you type.
Pull current market data (optional)
Type a ticker like AAPL and click Get Price. The calculator fills in the current stock price, dividend yield, and the risk-free rate from the 13-week T-bill, then loads the option chain so you can pick actual strikes and premiums.
Set up your jade lizard legs
The jade lizard legs are preloaded for you. Pick each strike, expiration, and premium straight from the option chain, or type your own numbers. The calculator works out implied volatility from the premium you enter, and you can still edit it.
Calculate and read the results
Click Calculate P&L to see max profit, max loss, breakeven, return on risk, and probability of profit, plus position Greeks: delta, gamma, theta, vega, and rho.
Stress test before you trade
Drag the view-date slider to see your P&L curve on any day before expiration, shift implied volatility up or down 50 points, and scan the price-by-date P&L table to see how the trade behaves across scenarios.
This jade lizard calculator prices each leg with your choice of an American-style binomial model (the default for US equity options) or European Black-Scholes-Merton, and accounts for dividend yield. You can set a per-contract commission, copy a shareable link to your exact setup, download the chart as a PNG, and switch to dark mode.
Understanding the Jade Lizard
Key numbers every jade lizard trader needs to know before entering the position.
A jade lizard combines a short out-of-the-money put with a short call spread (sell a call, buy a higher-strike call). All three legs are sold for a net credit. The structure is essentially a short strangle where the naked call has been converted into a defined-risk call spread by purchasing a protective long call at a higher strike.
The key to a jade lizard is collecting enough total credit to cover the width of the call spread. When the combined credit from the short put and short call exceeds the cost of the long call plus the call spread width, the position has zero risk to the upside. If the stock rallies through both call strikes, the loss on the call spread is fully offset by the credit received. This means the only risk is on the downside, below the short put strike minus the credit.
Jade lizards work best in elevated implied volatility environments where the premiums are rich enough to achieve this no-upside-risk structure. They are popular among premium sellers who have a neutral to moderately bullish outlook and want to collect credit while keeping the upside completely safe. The trade-off is that the downside risk is substantial, similar to owning 100 shares of stock below the put breakeven.
Jade Lizard Example Trade
XYZ is at $100. Sell 1 $95 put for $1.50, sell 1 $105 call for $2.00, buy 1 $110 call for $0.80. Net credit: $2.70. Call spread width: $5.00.
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Track your jade lizard trades over time
This calculator shows your setup before the trade. The next step is tracking whether your jade lizards are actually profitable over time. Enter your email to get the free Financial Tech Wiz trading journal and all included tools.
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