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The simplest bullish-to-neutral options strategy: sell one put option, uncovered. Maximum profit is capped at the premium received, and while the loss isn't literally unlimited the way a Short Call's is, it can still be very large.

Selling a put option obligates you to buy the underlying at a fixed strike price, if the buyer chooses to exercise. You collect a premium upfront for taking on that obligation. If the underlying stays above your strike, the put expires worthless and you keep the full premium. If it falls well below your strike, your losses grow — though only down to the point where the underlying reaches zero, the same ceiling-on-loss nuance a Long Put's profit has, just experienced here from the seller's side.

That's the entire position — the exact opposite side of a Long Put. A common real-world use is as a way to potentially acquire the underlying at a price below today's, while getting paid for the willingness to do so, rather than as a pure premium-collection play on its own.

You collect the premium once, upfront, and that caps your entire possible gain. From there:

1. At or above the strike price — the put has no intrinsic value at expiry, and you keep the full premium.
2. Below the strike price — your loss grows point-for-point as the underlying falls. Below the breakeven, you're losing more than the premium you collected.

This is the mirror image of buying a put: the buyer's capped loss and large profit potential become, from the seller's side, capped profit and large loss potential.

A Short Put fits a bullish-to-neutral view — you don't expect the underlying to fall, and want to collect premium from that view, or you'd be genuinely willing to buy the underlying at the strike price if it did fall there. It's most attractive when implied volatility is elevated, since a richer premium widens the buffer before the position turns unprofitable.

Suppose Nifty is trading at 24,000 with a weekly expiry coming up, and lot size is 65. You don't expect a fall.

1. Confirm the setup. You're bullish-to-neutral on Nifty and want to collect premium.
2. Sell 1 put at the 24,000 strike (at-the-money), collecting a premium of 140.
3. Calculate your max profit: the full premium received, 140 × 65 = ₹9,100. This is the most you can make, fixed the moment you enter the trade.
4. Calculate your breakeven: 24,000 − 140 = 23,860.
5. Hold the position while Nifty stays above your breakeven.
6. See how it resolves at expiry:
   • Nifty finishes at or above 24,000 → the put expires worthless, you keep the full ₹9,100 premium.
   • Nifty finishes at 23,860 → you exactly break even.
   • Nifty finishes at 23,000 → loss is (24,000−23,000−140) × 65 = ₹55,900, and it keeps growing the further Nifty falls beyond that.

Quick reference for the same trade:

Based on the worked example above. Compare this to the Long Put page's diagram, using the same strike and premium — they're mirror images across the horizontal axis. Move the cursor over the chart to see profit/loss at any price.

• The loss, while technically capped at the underlying reaching zero, can still be very large in practice — a sharp fall well below the strike produces a loss many times the premium collected.
• Margin requirements are substantial, reflecting this large potential downside.
• Often used deliberately by traders willing to own the underlying at the strike price, in which case an assignment isn't purely a loss event, just an acquisition at that price.
• Index options on NSE are typically European-style and cash-settled — no early-assignment risk before expiry, though the underlying risk on the position itself remains large regardless.