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A two-leg options strategy that expresses a moderately bullish view with a known, capped cost and a known, capped profit — cheaper to enter than buying a call outright, in exchange for giving up profit beyond the upper strike.

Also called a long call spread or a bull call debit spread, it's one of the most common directional options trading strategies for Nifty and Bank Nifty options on the NSE, and usually the first spread strategy traders learn after single-leg calls and puts.

A Bull Call Spread combines buying one call at a lower strike with selling another call at a higher strike, same expiry. The premium collected from the short call partially offsets the cost of the long call, reducing your net cost compared to just buying a call outright — but it also caps how much you can make, since the short call gives away any gains above its strike.

The long call is what gives you upside as the underlying rises. The short call caps that upside but brings in premium that reduces your total cost — this is what makes it a debit spread: you pay to enter it, unlike a credit spread such as a Bull Put Spread, where you'd collect money upfront instead.

You pay a net debit upfront, and your profit grows as the underlying rises — but only up to the short strike. Splitting the price axis into three zones at expiry:

1. Below the long call strike — maximum loss, fully capped. Both calls expire worthless, and you lose exactly the net debit paid.
2. Between the long and short call strikes — profit grows linearly as the underlying rises, moving from max loss toward breakeven and then toward max profit.
3. Above the short call strike — maximum profit, fully capped and flat. The long call's gains above this point are exactly offset by the short call's losses, so profit stops growing no matter how much further the underlying rises.

Unlike buying a call outright — where profit is theoretically unlimited but so is the premium you paid — a Bull Call Spread trades away unlimited upside for a lower, known cost and a known maximum gain.

A Bull Call Spread fits a moderately bullish view — you expect the underlying to rise, but not necessarily explode higher, and you'd rather reduce your cost (and therefore your risk) than pay full price for a call with unlimited theoretical upside you don't expect to use. It's also a reasonable way to express a bullish view when implied volatility is elevated, since the short call's premium helps offset the inflated cost of the long call.

Suppose Nifty is trading at 24,000 with a weekly expiry coming up, and lot size is 65. You expect a moderate rise.

1. Confirm the setup. You're moderately bullish on Nifty, but not expecting a huge move.
2. Buy 1 call at the 24,000 strike (at-the-money) for a premium of 145.
3. Sell 1 call at the 24,300 strike for a premium of 60, to offset part of the cost.
4. Calculate the net debit: 145 − 60 = 85 points, or ₹5,525 at this lot size. This is what you pay to enter the trade, and also your maximum possible loss.
5. Calculate the max profit: the spread is 300 points wide, so max profit is (300 − 85) × 65 = ₹13,975.
6. Calculate the breakeven: 24,000 + 85 = 24,085.
7. Hold the position while Nifty moves toward or through your target range.
8. See how it resolves at expiry:
   • Nifty finishes at or below 24,000 → both calls expire worthless, you lose the full ₹5,525 debit.
   • Nifty finishes at 24,085 → you exactly break even.
   • Nifty finishes at or above 24,300 → you keep the full ₹13,975, no matter how much further it rises.

Quick reference for the same trade:

Based on the worked example above. Move the cursor over the chart to see profit/loss at any price.

• You pay upfront, and can lose the entire debit. Unlike a credit spread, there's no premium cushion — if the underlying doesn't move in your favor, you lose what you paid, no more but no less.
• Upside is capped. If the underlying rises sharply past the short strike, you don't participate in any of that extra gain — a plain long call would have captured it.
• Index options on NSE are typically European-style and cash-settled — no early-assignment risk on the short leg, unlike American-style stock options.
• Time decay works against the net position early on if the underlying doesn't move, though less severely than for a plain long call, since the short leg is also decaying in your favor.