When you sell an ATM straddle on an NSE F&O stock you get paid up front — and you keep that premium as long as the stock doesn't run too far in either direction. The one question that decides the trade is simple: how far is "too far"? The ATM Straddle Breakeven scanner answers it for every F&O stock and index at once, showing the short-straddle breakeven cushion as a clean percentage. This guide explains how the breakeven is calculated and how to read every column, with worked examples.
Three moves. They tell you which stock is the safest one to sell a straddle on today.
The table is already sorted by the widest cushion first. The stock at the top can move the most, up or down, before a short straddle starts losing. That is your shortlist — the names the option market is paying you generously to sit still on.
Glance at the Liquidity badge. A huge cushion on an Illiquid name is a trap — you'll pay the spread getting in and again getting out. Stick to Liquid names until you know the stock well.
Look at ▲Up% / ▼Down% next to 1σ%. If your cushion is wider than the one-sigma expected move, the market's own maths says the stock should usually stay inside your range. That's the setup worth a closer look.
Why a percentage, and not just the rupee premium? Because ₹200 of premium on a ₹500 stock and ₹200 on a ₹5,000 stock are completely different cushions.
On the ₹500 stock, ₹200 is a huge 40% buffer. On the ₹5,000 stock it's a wafer-thin 4%. Rupees hide that; the percentage cushion puts every stock on the same ruler, so you can compare RELIANCE and a small-cap side by side in one glance.
Understand this one diagram and the whole screen opens up.
A straddle is a call and a put at the same strike — the strike nearest the current price (the ATM, at-the-money strike). When you sell both, you collect both premiums up front. That combined premium is called the Credit, and it is your cushion. You win as long as the stock stays calm and the options fade away.
Upper breakeven = strike + Credit • Lower breakeven = strike − Credit
Between those two lines you keep money. Past either line, you start losing. The scanner turns that distance into a percentage so you can rank every stock: ▲Up% is how far up it can go, ▼Down% is how far down.
Worked example — RELIANCE
RELIANCE spot 2,500, so the ATM strike is 2,500. The 2,500 call trades at ₹40 and the 2,500 put at ₹38 → Credit = 40 + 38 = ₹78. Upper breakeven = 2,500 + 78 = 2,578 (+3.1%). Lower breakeven = 2,500 − 78 = 2,422 (−3.1%). As long as RELIANCE stays between 2,422 and 2,578 by expiry, the straddle seller keeps something. Move past either edge and the loss grows the further it runs.
You don't need all of them at once. Learn the three in gold first — they decide the trade. The rest are context.
| Column | What it means | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Spot | The stock's current price. | The centre of the trade — both breakevens are measured from here. |
| ATM | The strike nearest the spot — where the straddle is built. | Usually a round number close to Spot. Nothing to do here; it's just the anchor. |
| Call / Put | The premium of the ATM call and the ATM put. | The two prices you'd collect. If one is much bigger than the other, the market is leaning that way. |
| Credit | Call + Put — the total premium you collect selling the straddle. | Your gross cushion in rupees. Bigger isn't automatically better — read it as a % (next columns). |
| ▲Up% key | How far the stock can rise before the straddle breaks even. | Your upside cushion. Bigger = more room before an up-move hurts. |
| ▼Down% key | How far the stock can fall before breakeven. | Your downside cushion. Compare the two — a lopsided pair hints at a skew. |
| 1σ% key | The move the option market expects by expiry (about 2 times out of 3). | The benchmark. Cushion wider than 1σ = the odds sit with the seller. |
| IV | Implied volatility — how expensive the options are right now. | High IV = fatter premium and a bigger expected move. It giveth and taketh. |
| Liquidity badge | Liquid / Moderate / Illiquid — how easily you can trade it. | Ignore Illiquid names. The spread will quietly eat the cushion the table promised. |
| Margin | Approx. money blocked to sell one lot of the straddle. | Your capital at work. Pair it with Return% to judge if the trade is worth the block. |
| Return% | Credit collected ÷ Margin — the best case if it expires worthless. | A quick "is it worth it?" gauge. High return usually means high risk — check 1σ. |
| Δ vs Open | How the straddle premium has moved since today's open. | Falling (green) = premium bleeding through the day, the seller's friend. |
| Δ o/n | Overnight change — today's open vs yesterday's close. | A rise (green) means premium richened overnight — a richer entry to sell. |
| DTE | Days to expiry. | Fewer days = faster premium decay, but less room for error. Most sellers like 2–5. |
The cushion is a snapshot. These three tools show you the premium moving — through the day, and overnight — which is what actually puts money in a seller's pocket.
It opens the intraday straddle premium chart — the total premium (call + put) you'd collect, drawn through today's session. You can switch the call and put lines on separately to see which side is doing the moving, and it keeps refreshing every few minutes while it's open. (The icon is greyed out when the ATM straddle isn't being priced.)
A premium sliding downhill through the day is the straddle seller's dream — the position you sold is getting cheaper to buy back, so you're in profit. A premium spiking up means the stock is turning jumpy and the market is charging more for the same bet.
Example: you sell the INFY straddle for ₹54 at 9:30. By 1 pm the chart shows it trading at ₹41 — that's ₹13 of decay already yours if you buy it back now, without the stock going anywhere.
How the straddle premium has moved since today's open. Green (falling) means it's bleeding away as the day goes on — exactly what a seller wants. Red means it's climbing. It answers: "is decay actually happening yet today?"
Today's open vs yesterday's close. Green means the premium richened overnight — it got more expensive to sell, so you're getting a richer entry (this often happens after a scare, when fear is high). Red means it bled out overnight. Use it to spot names worth selling first thing.
Picture the straddle-selling trade you want, then read it straight off the columns. Four common ones:
"Give me the widest cushion I can actually trade."
Start at the top (widest cushion), skip anything not Liquid, and keep the ones whose cushion beats their own 1σ. That's your core watchlist.
"Fear is overpaying — sell it."
When IV spikes, premiums richen and Return% jumps. Just remember: a fat premium exists because the expected move is big too. Only sell if the cushion still clears 1σ.
"One side has far more room than the other."
If the down-cushion is much bigger than the up-cushion, the market is priced for a fall. If you disagree and expect calm, that lopsided premium can be an edge — or a warning. Read it, don't ignore it.
"Let time do the work."
Close to expiry, premium melts fast if the stock sits still — you'll see it in a green Δ vs Open. Smaller cushion, so this is a tighter, watch-it-closely trade, not a set-and-forget.
Reality check: every scan above finds candidates, not certainties. A short straddle makes a little money often and can lose a lot rarely — one gap or news event can blow past both breakevens. The cushion tells you the odds, never the outcome. Size small and keep a stop.
A made-up but realistic row, decoded the way you'd do it live.
INFY — Spot 1,500 • ATM 1,500 • Call ₹28 • Put ₹26 • Credit ₹54 • ▲Up 3.6% • ▼Down 3.6% • 1σ 2.9% • IV 22% • Liquid • Return 9.4% • DTE 3.
Cushion: 3.6% each side vs a 2.9% expected move — the cushion clears 1σ, odds favour the seller. Tradable: Liquid, good. Reward: 9.4% on margin for a 3-day hold is healthy. Verdict: a textbook "Safe Seller" candidate — now confirm on the chart that INFY is genuinely range-bound before selling.
The last step is always the chart. The scanner tells you which stock has the best cushion and reward. It cannot see that INFY is coiled under a big resistance about to break. Click the stock to open its Market Profile chart and check the stock is actually calm before you sell its calm.
MP Charts guide — the scanner ranks the cushion; the chart tells you whether the stock is calm enough to deserve it. Value area, POC and balance.
Live Intraday Scanner guide and the Volume Scanner guide — spot the breakout or the institutional footprint before it blows through your breakeven.
Without logging in you're looking at the previous session's numbers — perfect for learning the cushion, the columns and the scans. The live table, refreshing through the day with real-time premiums, margins and one-click charts, is what you use to trade.
This is an analysis and education tool — it measures distance to breakeven, it does not predict outcomes or give investment advice. Selling straddles carries unlimited risk: a large move in either direction can lose far more than the premium collected. Position size and stop-losses are your responsibility — trade only with capital you can afford to risk.