bullishPays debit

Long Call

Buying a call gives you the right to buy 100 shares at the strike price until expiration. It's the simplest bullish options trade: your risk is capped at the premium paid, while your upside is theoretically unlimited.

When it makes sense

You expect a meaningful move up before expiration, not just drift
Implied volatility is low relative to the stock's history (options are cheap)
You want leveraged upside with strictly limited downside

How it works

Buy one call at your chosen strike and expiration. The premium paid is your maximum loss. Breakeven at expiration is the strike plus the premium. Delta tells you roughly how many 'shares worth' of exposure you hold — a 0.50-delta call behaves like ~50 shares.

Risk & reward

Maximum loss: premium paid. Maximum profit: unlimited. Time decay works against you every day, and a drop in implied volatility hurts even if the stock goes nowhere. Most of the premium can evaporate quickly on out-of-the-money calls.

Worked example

Stock at $100. Buy the 30-day $105 call for $2.00 ($200). If the stock rallies to $112 by expiration, the call is worth $7.00 — a $500 profit on $200 risked. If the stock stays below $105, the call expires worthless and you lose $200.

Scan the market for long calls

OptionClaws ranks every long call in the market by return, probability, and liquidity — free for 7 days.