See exactly what a covered call pays before you sell it: premium yield, profit if called away, breakeven on your shares, and how the numbers change week by week. Free, no login.
Theoretical Black‑Scholes estimates from your inputs. Not live quotes, not a forecast, not financial advice: real fills differ with bid‑ask spreads, dividends, early exercise and IV changes.
Solid line: profit and loss at expiration. Dashed line: theoretical profit and loss today.
Heatmap: estimated profit and loss (Black-Scholes) at each stock price and date. Green = above zero, red = below.
The default setup is a reproducible educational example, not a live quote.
If the stock finishes at or above $105, the shares are called away and the example earns $500 of stock appreciation plus $166 of premium. If the stock falls to zero, the premium reduces—but does not remove—the stock loss.
Calculation methodology and review
This calculator was built and tested by the Pure Power Picks team and technically reviewed on August 11, 2026. Expiration profit and loss is calculated from each leg's intrinsic value, premium and 100-share contract multiplier. Before-expiration estimates use Black-Scholes with the IV, rate and days supplied. The specialized cards separate option yield on current share value from yield on historical cost. They also compare shares with the 100-share contract multiplier and flag partial or uncovered positions. Delta is a sensitivity measure and only a rough assignment-probability proxy—not an actual forecast.
Model outputs are educational estimates—not quotes or forecasts. Real results can differ because of bid-ask spreads, commissions, dividends, changing IV and early exercise of American-style options.
Closer strikes generally pay more premium but cap upside sooner. Further-out strikes retain more upside but usually pay less. Compare several contracts with the same assumptions, and confirm liquidity, bid-ask spread, earnings and ex-dividend dates separately. Our monthly covered-call stock list focuses on those practical filters.
Yes. Manual calculations require no login, and the optional market data is delayed.
Your upside is capped. At expiration, covered shares can be called away at the strike; you keep the premium and any share gain up to that price.
No. Premium lowers the breakeven by its amount, but below that level the position loses like long stock. The exact maximum loss assumes the shares become worthless.
No. It only normalizes one short holding period for comparison. It assumes you could repeat similar trades continuously, which markets do not guarantee.
Need custom spreads or a poor man's covered call? Use the full options profit calculator. For the CSP-to-covered-call cycle, use the wheel strategy calculator.
Options involve substantial risk and are not suitable for every investor. Read the OCC's Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. Pure Power Picks is an educational service, not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer.