Options Pricing Calculator
Intrinsic value, payoff, breakeven and Black-Scholes prices with AI-powered step-by-step solutions
Intrinsic Value, Extrinsic Value and Payoff
An option's price splits into two parts that are worth separating before any model is involved.
Intrinsic value is what the contract is worth if exercised right now, floored at zero:
where is the underlying price and the strike.
Extrinsic value (time value) is everything left over:
It is never negative, and it decays to zero at expiry.
Payoff and breakeven for a long position, per share, ignoring commissions:
A US equity contract normally covers 100 shares, so multiply per-share figures by 100.
This is a math tool. It evaluates the formulas on inputs you supply тАФ it makes no recommendation about any trade.
The Black-Scholes Formula
For a European option on a non-dividend-paying underlying:
- тАФ underlying price, тАФ strike
- тАФ risk-free rate, continuously compounded, as a decimal
- тАФ annualized volatility as a decimal
- тАФ time to expiry in years (30 days )
- тАФ the standard normal CDF
Put-call parity
A free consistency check: price the call, then get the put from parity instead of running the second formula.
Delta
Delta is the sensitivity of the price to a small move in , and is often read loosely as a rough gauge of finishing in the money.
Black-Scholes assumes constant volatility, no dividends and European exercise тАФ none of which hold exactly.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- in days: the formula needs years. Divide the days by 365 (or 252 if you are working in trading days consistently with ).
- Volatility as a percentage: , not . This error inflates prices absurdly.
- Forgetting the term in : it is not a typo in the textbook; dropping it biases every price.
- Discounting the wrong leg: only the strike is discounted, as . The spot price is already a present value.
- Confusing with the density: is the cumulative standard normal, the same used for z-scores.
- Negative extrinsic value: if your computed extrinsic value is below zero, the intrinsic value or the quote is wrong тАФ the two cannot cross.
- Applying European Black-Scholes to American options: early exercise can add value, particularly for puts and around dividends.
- Per-share versus per-contract: an \4.80$480$ on a 100-share contract.
Examples
Frequently Asked Questions
Intrinsic value is what the option would be worth if exercised immediately тАФ max(S тИТ K, 0) for a call, max(K тИТ S, 0) for a put. Extrinsic value is the rest of the premium, paid for the remaining time and volatility. It decays to zero by expiry, at which point the premium equals the intrinsic value.
Spot price S, strike K, risk-free rate r (continuously compounded, as a decimal), annualized volatility ╧Г (as a decimal), and time to expiry T in years. Volatility is the only one not directly observable тАФ it is either estimated from history or implied from a traded price.
Divide by the number of periods per year your volatility is quoted in тАФ typically T = days/365 for calendar days. Thirty days is about 0.0822 years. Leaving T in days is the single most common Black-Scholes input error.
It states that C тИТ P = S тИТ Ke^(тИТrT) for European options on the same underlying, strike and expiry. Practically, it lets you derive one price from the other and gives a quick consistency check on any calculation or quoted pair.
Related Solvers
Try AI-Math for Free
Get step-by-step solutions to any math problem. Upload a photo or type your question.
Start Solving