Iron Condor, Explained

What it is

An iron condor is just two credit spreads at once on the same stock and expiry: a bull put spread below the price and a bear call spread above it. You collect both credits and profit if the stock stays between your short strikes.

The numbers

Stock at $100. You sell the $90/$85 put spread and the $110/$115 call spread, collecting $1.00 on each side — $2.00 total ($200). Each side is $5 wide.

• Max profit: total credit — $200. Kept if the stock finishes between $90 and $110.
• Max loss: width of one side minus total credit = ($5 − $2) × 100 = $300. Only one side can be breached at expiry, so you don't risk both.
• Breakevens: $88 and $112 (short strikes ± total credit).

When to use it

When you're neutral and expect the stock to stay range-bound, ideally when IV Rank is high (you're selling expensive options you expect to decay). The wider you set the short strikes, the higher your probability of profit but the smaller the credit.

The catch

Your max loss is bigger than your max gain, so a few breached condors can erase many winners. The whole game is keeping the stock inside the range — which means no earnings or catalysts during the trade, and managing or closing early when price approaches a short strike.

How TickerRisk helps

Iron condors want high IV and low event risk — exactly what Edge Score measures. Find candidates on the IV Rank screener, confirm with Trade Radar, and clear the calendar first.