The PnL Chart in the central viewing pane of the SpotGamma Options Calculator displays the return profile for your trade setup. Specifically, the profit or loss is displayed on the y-axis and the related stock price is shown on the x-axis. By default, the PnL Chart measures the position’s price at the time of expiration, as shown below:

In addition to the preset layout, SpotGamma’s Options Calculator allows you to manipulate both the time-to-expiration and the implied volatility for each options leg, which dynamically changes the return profile displayed on the below PnL Chart:

Chart Features

Within the PnL Chart, there are many ways to customize your return profile and model different trade scenarios, including the following:    

Pan & Zoom: Click anywhere on the chart, and then expand the visual field to zoom out or pan in with your touchscreen or mouse.   

PnL Curve: View the price ranges where your trade is profitable (green shading) or unprofitable (red shading) based on the position you have input into the Options Calculator. The PnL curve can be rendered to show the effect of shifting Time-to-Expiration and Volatility, as outlined below.

• Adjusting Time-to-Expiration: Moving the Time-to-Expiration slider will show you the PnL Curve for your position across future dates. When adjusting the Time-to-Expiration slider, the At-Expiration PnL will display as a dashed gray line.
• Adjusting Volatility: When you make an adjustment to implied volatility or skew in your IV Settings, the PnL Curve will reflect your changes as the IV-Adjusted PnL for all dates prior to expiration. A dashed yellow line on the PnL Chart will then display the Market IV PnL, which shows the initial PnL Curve without any changes to IV for all dates prior to expiration. If you leave the Time-to-Expiration slider at Expiry, the lines will not separate.

Strike Selectors: At the bottom of the chart, you can drag the strike below the PnL Chart to adjust strike prices and see the impact of changing strikes on the profitability of your position. Green indicates a bought option, red indicates that the option is sold.

Tooltip: When hovering over the chart, a small pop-up on the chart will display showing you the profitability or loss at that specific price, under different scenarios: the At Expiration PnL, the Market IV PnL, or the IV-adjusted PnL. This can be used to understand the impact of time and volatility on your position’s value.

Basic Settings

Across the top of the PnL Chart, users can take advantage of various features to change their visualization.

Add Call: Add a call to the view, defaulting to a near-the-money strike for the nearest expiration within the current position.

Add Put: Add a put to the view, defaulting to a near-the-money strike for the nearest expiration within the current position.

Restore Default View: Reset to the original view, showing the impact of all strikes on the PnL Chart and how they impact the return profile.

Key Levels: View SpotGamma Key Levels directly on the chart for each name, or toggle them off if you would like to view the chart without the levels displayed. Note that Standard users can only access the key levels for major US Indices.

Full Screen: Maximize the PnL Chart so that it occupies the entirety of the SpotGamma dashboard.

Position Summary Info

High level information for the position is included at the top of the PnL Chart.

Symbol: The ticker that the PnL Chart is currently pointed at.

Net Credit: This shows the net amount received as premium for the position.

Net Debit: This shows the net amount paid for the position.

PnL Projection Date: The date that the PnL is currently measured for, based on the time-to-expiration slider in the bottom right of the chart.

Current Price: The latest price that the underlying ticker has trading for.

Max Profit: Highest value of potential profit that can be received from the position, measured at the time of expiration.

Max Loss: Greatest potential loss that can be achieved with the position, measured at the time of expiration.

Access the Options Calculator User Guide here. 

SpotGamma subscribers can access the Options Calculator here.