Bull Spreads
Step-by-Step Guide

If you’re new to Nadex you’re probably new to trading Bull Spreads. This step-by-step guide is designed to guide you through a trade, from logging in through exiting a position early.

Logging In

Once you’ve opened an account with Nadex you can log in to the trading platform from anywhere on the site.

Click the blue Log In button at the top-right of your screen
Enter username and password in the boxes provided
Click Log In to enter the Nadex trading platform

Finding your Market

The Navigate window in the Finder panel on the left side of the screen shows you the markets available to trade.

To find a market, either:

Use the Search box
Navigate the dropdown menus
Search the pre-defined Watchlists

To see which Stock Indices Bull Spreads are available, and then choose a market:

Click Indices (Bull Spreads) from the dropdown in Navigate
Click Wall St 30 to bring up the contract categories
Choose Daily (400 pts) to view the range of daily contracts

Completing your Ticket

You choose Wall St 30 (Mar) 11600-12000 (4:15PM).

On the Order Ticket you have two options:

Buy if you believe the price will rise
Sell if you believe the price will fall

Bull Spreads have built-in floor and ceiling levels to limit your maximum potential profit and loss. In our example the floor is 11600 and the ceiling is 12000.

You think the index will fall.

You select Sell in the Direction field
You choose two contracts in the Size field

In the Price field, use the arrow buttons to enter the current Offer price or type it in manually. You can also click on the relevant price shaded in yellow.

You choose the Bid price of 11856

You can see your maximum potential profit and loss are $512 and $288 respectively. Click Place Order to open the position.

Closing your Bull Spread

The floor or ceiling will apply if necessary at settlement, or you can close your trade early to take a profit or cut a loss.

Bull Spread trades don't automatically close if the floor/ceiling is reached before expiration, meaning you won't get stopped out before the Bull Spread expires.

Closing your position early

In the Open Positions window click the name of your market to display an Order Ticket.

The Order Ticket shows a trade that is opposite to your opening trade, and will in effect close your position.

Click Place Order to close your position at the current Offer price

In this example, the Offer price is 11883. This is 27 more than your opening price of 11856 and, multiplied by your 2 contracts, gives a gross loss of $54.

You can also partially close positions by changing the number of contracts you wish to close in the Size field.

To calculate your net profit on this trade, one would need to account for Transaction Costs.