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I got a great question during a recent session that made me realize I need to talk about this more often.
When I’m setting up bullish trades using vertical spreads, I almost always reach for bull put credit spreads instead of call debit spreads. And before you ask — yes, I know they’re structurally identical. Same risk, same reward, same directional bias.
So why do I prefer one over the other?
It comes down to something most traders overlook: what happens at expiration.
The Hidden Cost of Exercise Fees
Here’s the thing — when you’re trading call debit spreads and the trade works out, you’re in the money at expiration. That sounds great, but to actually realize those gains you have to exercise your contracts. Depending on your brokerage, that can mean paying exercise fees.
I don’t want to pay fees or deal with exercising anything when a trade goes my way. I’d much rather position myself with puts that sit out of the money, down below the strike, so they can simply fade away without triggering anything I have to manage.
With bull put credit spreads, I set them out of the money, below the current price. If the underlying stays above my short strike, those puts just expire worthless on Friday and disappear from my account. No action required. No fees charged. I make the full premium, and I don’t have to worry about anything.
It’s clean, it’s simple, and it saves me money.
Market Conditions and Strategy Consistency
Another layer I always pay attention to is how the option chain prices risk as expiration gets closer. The market maker move is a one day expectation, while the option chain prices all the way out to expiration.
Naturally, expected moves widen the further you go. Understanding how that expansion works helps me choose strikes that give the trade room to breathe while keeping the spread positioned where I want it — out of the money, stress-free, and aligned with how volatility tends to evolve.
And if you want to take the whole thing a step further, this moves beyond psychology and into practical risk management. Staying consistent in how you structure your spreads matters.
Using the same framework over and over removes randomness from your process and forces your results to come from your strategy, not your emotions. Over time, that consistency is what smooths your equity curve and keeps you from drifting into trades that look good but don’t fit your plan.
You can absolutely use calls if you prefer. Just use the same strikes and create a debit spread. In principle, it will be the same trade. The difference is that you’ll have to exercise at the end of the period, and not all brokerages treat that the same way.
I prefer to keep things as clean and frictionless as possible, and avoiding unnecessary fees is a big part of that — because those fees add up to a massive chunk of change by the end of the year.
It’s a small detail, but over time these little efficiencies add up. And in a game where edges are thin, I’ll take every advantage I can get.
Graham Lindman
Graham Lindman Trading
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*This is for informational and educational purposes only. There is inherent risk in trading, so trade at your own risk.
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