With markets looking more volatile, it’s a good time to check in on our bear put spread screener.

A bear put spread is a vertical spread that aims to profit from a stock declining in price. It has a bearish directional bias as hinted in the name. Unlike the bear call spread, it suffers from time decay so traders need to be correct on the direction of the underlying and also the timing.

A bear put spread is created through buying an out-of-the-money put and selling a further out-of-the-money put.

The maximum profit is equal to the distance between the strikes, less the premium paid. The loss is limited to the premium paid.

Let’s take a look at Barchart’s Short Bear Put Spread Screener for today:

Some interesting trades here with impressive Max Profit Percentage. Let’s take a look at the first item in the table – a bear put spread on Verizon (VZ).

Verizon Bear Put Spread Example

Using the July 19 expiry, this trade involves buying the $40 put and selling the $34 put.

The price for the trade is $1.47 which means the trader would pay $147 to enter the trade. This is also the maximum loss. The maximum gain be calculated by taking the width between the strikes and subtracting the premium paid:

6 – 1.47 x 100 = $453.

The breakeven price for the trade is equal to the long put strike, less the premium. In this case, that gives us a breakeven price of $38.53.

Let’s look at another example.

Pepsico Bear Put Spread Example

The Pepsico (PEP) example is also using the July 19 expiry and involves buying the $175 strike put and selling the $150 strike put.

The cost of the trade is $637 which is also the maximum loss with the maximum possible gain being $1,863. The maximum gain would occur if PEP fell below $150 on the expiration date.

PEP is showing an IV Percentile of 40% and an IV Rank of 28.22%. The current level of implied volatility is 14.85% compared to a 52-week high of 25.97% and a low of 10.47%.

Let’s look at another example, this time on Apple (AAPL).

AAPL Bear Put Spread Example

The first AAPL trade is also using the July 19 expiry and involves buying the $170 strike put and selling the $140 strike put.

The cost of the trade is $765 which is also the maximum loss with the maximum possible gain being $2,235. The maximum gain would occur if AAPL stock fell below $140 on the expiration date.

AAPL is showing an IV Percentile of 90% and an IV Rank of 77.57%. The current level of implied volatility is 27.19% compared to a 52-week high of 30.60% and a low of 15.42%.

Mitigating Risk

Thankfully, bear put spreads are risk defined trades, so they have some build in risk management. 

For each trade consider setting a stop loss of 30% of the max loss.

Please remember that options are risky, and investors can lose 100% of their investment. 

This article is for education purposes only and not a trade recommendation. Remember to always do your own due diligence and consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions.