Iron Condors Before Earnings

A pre-earnings iron condor sells the inflated implied volatility ahead of a report, with both wings capping the loss. It profits from the volatility crush if the stock lands inside the expected move.

You expect a stock to stay within its implied move through earnings.

Pillar 1 · Illustrative setup

How this example is built

Sell a put spread and a call spread outside the market's expected move, collecting an inflated credit just before the report.

Illustrative inputs only — not live prices.

Open the on-device calculator →

An iron condor is two vertical spreads; you can model each leg in the on-device spread calculator.

Pillar 2 · When & why

Why this fits Pre-Earnings Run-Ups

The method is to read the expected move from option prices, place the short strikes outside it, and often close the day after the report once the volatility crush has done its work — to avoid carrying ongoing trend risk.

Maximum loss is larger than the credit and happens if the stock gaps past a short strike. Earnings are binary; the expected move is a probability, not a fence, and a surprise can blow through a wing.

Pillar 3 · Risk / reward

The defined-risk math