Outlook: Big move, either way. Taught in full in Lesson 23, Straddles & strangles: trading movement itself. This page is the reference card.
Illustration, not a recommendation. The strikes and premiums on this page are fixed teaching figures, not live quotes, and no strategy suits every account or every market. Read the full disclaimer.
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What you must believe
NIFTY moves further than the market has priced, direction unknown. Your forecast competes with the straddle's own price, which is the market's expected move.
Construction
Straddle: buy the 25,000 CE at ₹120 and 25,000 PE at ₹110: ₹230 per unit, ₹14,950 per lot. Strangle: buy the 24,800 PE at ₹90 and 25,200 CE at ₹55 instead: ₹145, ₹9,425, cheaper but needing a bigger journey.
The numbers, before entry
Max loss: the full package: ₹14,950 (straddle) / ₹9,425 (strangle), worst exactly at the strikes
Max profit: open-ended both directions
Breakevens: 24,770 and 25,230 (straddle); 24,655 and 25,345 (strangle)
Delta-neutral at entry, strongly long gamma and vega, doubly short theta: two rents fall due daily. Time is the real opponent, more than direction.
Realistic expectations
Long straddles lose more often than they win; the modal ending is "moved, but not enough". They earn their keep on the occasional violent week and on IV expansion bought early. Bought at high IV rank on event eve, they must beat both the move and the crush, which is the most repeated retail loss in index options.
Management rules
One-line entry check: my forecast move must clearly exceed the package price
Take the spike: close half when a move arrives mid-week
Write the crush number before any pre-event entry: package value if nothing happens
With other strategies
Sell an OTM option against the winning leg after the move and the position collapses into a vertical spread with profit banked
Its exact mirror is the short strangle: every rupee of your theta bill is someone's income; knowing their exits (Lesson 23) sharpens yours
The backspread is its credit-financed cousin: similar explosion payoff, paid for by a sag zone instead of a premium bill
Against a calendar (Lesson 25): both are "volatility opinion" trades; the straddle wants realised movement, the calendar wants stillness with rising IV. Choosing between them is choosing which volatility you mean
Common mistakes
Buying because "it will move" without comparing to the priced move
Event-eve entries at peak IV, crushed by mid-morning
Holding both legs through quiet days while double rent accrues