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Bull call spread

Buying a call and selling a higher-strike call — a defined-risk, moderately bullish debit trade.

A bull call spread is a two-leg strategy you use when you expect a stock to rise, but only moderately. You buy a call at one strike and simultaneously sell a call at a higher strike, both with the same expiration. The premium you collect from the short call partly pays for the long call, so your net cost is lower than buying a call outright. In return, you cap your upside at the higher strike.

Say a stock trades at 100 and you buy the 100 call for 5 while selling the 110 call for 2. Your net cost is 3, which is also your maximum loss if the stock stays below 100. Your best case is the stock finishing at or above 110, where the spread is worth 10, giving a profit of 7. Anything in between scales in proportion.

The common mistake is choosing strikes too far apart, which makes the trade behave almost like a plain long call and defeats the purpose of reducing cost. Keep in mind the short call limits your gains, so this is a defined-risk, defined-reward play rather than a bet on a big breakout.

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