The Iron Condor Strategy for NIFTY and BANKNIFTY

What is an iron condor?

The iron condor is one of the most popular non directional option strategies among Indian index traders, and for good reason. It is built to make money when the market does very little. Instead of betting that NIFTY or BANKNIFTY will rise or fall, you are betting that it will stay inside a range until expiry. If you have ever watched the index chop sideways for days while your directional trades bled away, the iron condor is the structure that turns that boredom into a payoff.

At its heart an iron condor is four option legs traded together on the same underlying and the same expiry. You sell one out of the money call and buy a further out of the money call above it, which forms a bear call spread. At the same time you sell one out of the money put and buy a further out of the money put below it, which forms a bull put spread. Put those two credit spreads side by side and you have an iron condor. The two short strikes mark the edges of your profit zone, and the two long strikes cap your risk on each side.

Because every leg is opened at the same time, you receive a single net credit upfront. That credit is the most you can ever make on the trade. The long options you bought sit further out as insurance: they are what make the iron condor a defined risk position rather than an open ended one. This single feature, knowing your worst case before you enter, is why disciplined option sellers in India lean on the iron condor so heavily on indices like NIFTY and BANKNIFTY that are cash settled and deeply liquid.

The name comes from the shape of the payoff diagram, which looks like a wide bird with two flat wings and a flat body in the middle. It is the hedged cousin of the short strangle. A short strangle also sells an out of the money call and put, but leaves them naked, which means unlimited risk and very heavy margin. The iron condor sacrifices a slice of the premium to buy protection, and in exchange you get a capped loss and a much smaller margin requirement.

Why the iron condor suits Indian index options

Indian index options are almost tailor made for the iron condor. NIFTY and BANKNIFTY options are cash settled, so there is never any question of taking or giving delivery of shares. At expiry the exchange simply settles the difference in cash against the settlement price, which removes assignment headaches that stock option sellers in other markets worry about. For a four legged strategy that you may hold right up to expiry, cash settlement keeps things clean.

Liquidity is the second reason. NIFTY and BANKNIFTY weekly and monthly contracts are among the most actively traded derivatives in the world. Tight bid ask spreads matter enormously when you are putting on four legs and taking them off later, because every point of slippage eats directly into a credit that may only be sixty or seventy points to begin with. Trading liquid index strikes near the money, you can usually get filled close to the mid price on all four legs.

The third reason is the rich premium that Indian indices carry. Implied volatility on NIFTY and especially BANKNIFTY tends to stay healthy, which means option sellers are paid well for taking on range risk. The iron condor is a premium selling strategy, so it thrives where there is fat premium to harvest. Add the regular cadence of weekly expiries on NIFTY, and you get frequent, repeatable opportunities to sell time decay.

Finally, the regulated structure helps. The exchanges, NSE and BSE, are overseen by SEBI, contracts are standardised with fixed lot sizes, and margins are calculated transparently through the SPAN plus exposure framework. For a learner on a paper trading platform, this means the iron condor you practise behaves exactly like the one you would place with real money later, so the skill transfers directly.

How to construct an iron condor: the four legs

Building an iron condor is a matter of stacking two credit spreads around the current price. Start with the upper half. You sell an out of the money call above the market and buy a further out of the money call above that. The premium you receive for the nearer call is larger than the premium you pay for the farther call, so the call side brings in a net credit. This bear call spread profits as long as the index stays below your short call.

Now build the lower half. You sell an out of the money put below the market and buy a further out of the money put below that. Again the nearer put brings in more than the farther put costs, so the put side is also a net credit. This bull put spread profits as long as the index stays above your short put. Combine the two and you are paid twice, once for each spread.

A few rules keep the structure sound. All four legs must share the same expiry. The distance between the short strike and the long strike, called the wing width, is usually kept equal on both sides so the risk is balanced and symmetric. The two short strikes are normally placed at roughly equal distance from the spot price, which centres the profit zone around the current level. When the short strikes are equidistant the position starts close to delta neutral, meaning small moves either way have little immediate effect.

In order, the four legs read like this. Buy one far out of the money put. Sell one nearer out of the money put. Sell one nearer out of the money call. Buy one far out of the money call. The two middle legs are the ones you sell, the two outer legs are the ones you buy, and the gap between them on each side is your defined risk. On NIFTY a common width is 200 points per wing, while on BANKNIFTY traders often use 500 points because the index is larger and moves further.

On a platform strategy builder you can place all four legs as a single basket so they fill together and you see the combined payoff before you commit. Always confirm the net credit, the breakevens and the maximum loss on the builder before sending the order. If you cannot get a sensible credit for the risk, the strikes are wrong, not the strategy.

The iron condor payoff explained

The payoff of an iron condor is best understood as a flat plateau in the middle with two ramps falling away on either side. Between your two short strikes, the profit is constant and equal to the full net credit you collected. This is the body of the bird. As long as the index finishes anywhere inside that central band at expiry, both spreads expire worthless and you keep every rupee of premium.

Move outside the short strikes and the picture changes. If the index pushes above your short call, the call spread starts losing value point for point, and your profit shrinks. The loss keeps growing until the index reaches your long call, after which the long call kicks in and freezes the loss at its maximum. The same logic mirrors on the downside: below your short put the put spread loses, and once price reaches your long put the loss is capped.

The two sloping sections between each short and long strike are where breakevens and losses live. The flat caps at the far ends are the protection from your long options. This shape is why the iron condor is described as range bound: you want the index to settle gently in the middle, not to make a decisive move in either direction.

It is worth internalising that an iron condor is short volatility and short movement. Time is your friend because every day that passes with the index inside the range, the short options lose value and the trade gains. A sudden expansion in volatility or a sharp trend is your enemy because it pushes price toward one of the wings. Understanding this trade off, slow grinding gains versus the risk of a fast loss, is the core of trading the structure well.

Max profit, max loss and breakevens

The beauty of the iron condor is that all the key numbers are fixed and knowable before you enter. The maximum profit is simply the net credit you received, multiplied by the lot size. You realise it in full only if the index closes between the two short strikes at expiry, so that all four options expire worthless.

The maximum loss is the wing width minus the net credit, again multiplied by the lot size. Note that because both spreads use the same width and only one side can ever be breached at expiry, your worst case is driven by a single spread, not both. The credit you collected from the safe side cushions the loss on the side that goes against you, which is exactly why selling both spreads together is more efficient than selling just one.

The breakevens sit a little outside each short strike. The upper breakeven equals the short call strike plus the net credit. The lower breakeven equals the short put strike minus the net credit. Between these two breakeven points the trade is at least at break even or in profit at expiry; outside them it is in a loss. The distance between the two breakevens is your true profit zone, and it is always wider than the gap between the short strikes by an amount equal to twice the credit.

A useful sanity check before any trade is the reward to risk ratio, which is the maximum profit divided by the maximum loss. A typical iron condor on a liquid index collects somewhere between a quarter and a half of the wing width as credit, which puts the reward to risk in the rough region of one to one and a half against you. That is acceptable only because the probability of finishing inside the range is meant to be high. The whole craft of the strategy is balancing how much credit you collect against how likely the index is to stay home.

Ideal IV and range conditions for an iron condor

An iron condor is a bet on two things at once: that price stays range bound, and that implied volatility does not expand. The best conditions arrive when implied volatility is high relative to its own recent history, because that is when option premiums are bloated and you are paid the most to sell them. Selling rich premium and then watching volatility deflate is the sweet spot for this structure.

Traders gauge whether volatility is rich using implied volatility rank or implied volatility percentile, which place the current reading against the last several months. A high reading suggests fear is priced in and options are expensive, which favours the seller. An iron condor is net short vega, meaning a fall in implied volatility helps the position and a rise hurts it. So the ideal entry is when volatility is elevated and you expect it to mean revert downward, for example after a sharp scare has passed but premiums are still puffed up.

The other condition is the expected range. You want to sense a market that is consolidating, digesting a move, or stuck between clear support and resistance, rather than one breaking out. Pre event calm, the middle of an earnings light week, or a sideways drift after a strong trend are classic backdrops. By contrast, the days around a major event such as a monetary policy decision, a national budget, or heavy results can produce the volatility crush you want only if you are positioned before the move, and the gap risk can be brutal if you are caught wrong footed.

A practical filter many traders use is to avoid initiating fresh condors right before a scheduled high impact event, because a single gap can blow straight through a short strike. Instead they sell after the event when the uncertainty premium drains out, or they keep the strikes far enough out that an ordinary daily range cannot reach them. The volatility cone, which plots how implied volatility has ranged over time, is a handy tool to judge whether today reading is high, low or average before you commit.

Choosing strikes: distance, delta and width

Strike selection is where an iron condor is won or lost. Place the short strikes too close to the money and you collect a fat credit but the index can easily breach them; place them too far out and the trade is very safe but the credit is too thin to be worth the risk. The art is finding the balance that matches your read on the range and your tolerance for being tested.

A common, disciplined method is to choose short strikes by delta. The delta of an option roughly approximates its probability of finishing in the money. Many condor sellers place each short leg around the 0.15 to 0.20 delta level, which loosely implies an 80 to 85 percent chance of that option expiring worthless. Selling both sides at similar deltas keeps the structure balanced and close to delta neutral at entry, so you are not secretly taking a directional bet.

The wing width, the gap from each short strike to its protective long strike, controls both your credit and your risk. Wider wings collect a bit more credit and need slightly less margin relative to the risk, but they raise the absolute maximum loss. Narrower wings cap the loss tightly but cost more in protection and leave a smaller net credit. On NIFTY many traders use 100 or 200 point wings; on BANKNIFTY 300 to 500 point wings are common because the index is roughly twice the size and far more volatile.

Support and resistance add a final layer. Where possible, anchor the short call just above a clear resistance level and the short put just below a clear support level, so that price has to break a meaningful technical barrier to threaten your position. Combining a delta based probability view with chart based levels tends to produce more robust strikes than using either alone. Whatever you choose, write down the plan: the strikes, the credit, the breakevens and the point at which you will adjust or exit.

Margin for an iron condor in India

One of the strongest practical arguments for the iron condor over a naked short strangle is margin. In India, margin on futures and options is calculated using the SPAN plus exposure system. SPAN margin covers the worst case one day move of the portfolio, and exposure margin is an additional buffer on top. For a naked short option, this can run into well over a lakh of rupees per lot, because the exchange must assume an open ended adverse move.

The moment you add the protective long options, the position becomes a defined risk spread, and the margin engine recognises that your worst case is capped. This margin benefit for hedged positions can be dramatic. A naked NIFTY strangle that might block, say, more than one lakh rupees in margin can fall to a fraction of that once the wings are bought, because the exchange no longer has to provision for an unlimited loss. The exact figure depends on the strikes, the wing width and the prevailing volatility, so it is illustrative rather than fixed.

Since the regulatory move to peak margin reporting and upfront margin collection, brokers must collect the full margin before the position is opened, intraday and overnight alike. There is no longer a way to carry an under margined options position. This makes the capital efficiency of a hedged structure like the iron condor even more valuable, because the same trading capital can support more positions when each one ties up less margin.

Always check the live margin on your broker margin calculator or the strategy basket before placing the trade, because it changes with volatility. A useful habit is to compare the margin blocked against the maximum loss: for a well constructed iron condor the margin should be in a sensible relationship to the defined risk, not many multiples of it. If the margin looks far larger than the maximum loss, confirm that all four legs are recognised as a single hedged basket rather than four standalone trades.

Weekly versus monthly expiry: NIFTY and BANKNIFTY

Expiry choice shapes how an iron condor behaves day to day. Under the current SEBI framework each exchange offers weekly expiries on only one benchmark index. On the NSE that index is the NIFTY 50, so NIFTY carries weekly contracts, while BANKNIFTY, FINNIFTY and MIDCPNIFTY weeklies have been discontinued. BANKNIFTY weekly expiry was withdrawn in November 2024, and the index now trades on monthly expiries only.

The expiry calendar also matters for timing your exits. NIFTY weekly options expire every Tuesday, a change that took effect on 1 September 2025 when the weekly expiry moved from Thursday to Tuesday. The NIFTY monthly contract expires on the last Tuesday of the month, and the BANKNIFTY monthly contract also expires on the last Tuesday. Exchanges do revise these schedules from time to time, so it is always worth confirming the current expiry day on the latest NSE circular before you plan a trade.

A weekly NIFTY iron condor is a short, sharp, theta heavy trade. With only a handful of days to expiry, time decay is fast and the premium melts quickly if the index stays put, which is attractive. The flip side is high gamma: close to expiry the position becomes very sensitive to movement, so a single fast move late in the week can swing the trade from comfortable profit to a tested wing in hours. Weekly condors reward tight management and a willingness to take profits early.

A monthly iron condor, the natural choice on BANKNIFTY, is slower and steadier. With weeks to expiry, theta is gentler but so is gamma, which gives you more room to be wrong for a while and more time to adjust before a move becomes dangerous. The wider strikes typical on BANKNIFTY, often 500 points or more per wing, suit this slower clock. Many traders prefer to enter monthly condors with around three to five weeks left and manage them down to roughly the last week or two.

A sensible learning path is to practise monthly condors first to get comfortable with construction, payoff and adjustment without the pressure of fast expiry gamma, then graduate to weekly NIFTY condors once the mechanics are second nature. Lot sizes matter here too. At present a NIFTY lot is 65 units and a BANKNIFTY lot is 30 units, but the exchange revises lot sizes periodically, so always check the latest NSE circular before sizing a position. The rupee value of one point of credit and one point of loss differs on each index, and your position sizing must reflect that.

Worked example: a NIFTY weekly iron condor

Suppose NIFTY is trading at 23,500 with about a week to its Tuesday weekly expiry, and implied volatility is on the higher side of its recent range. You decide to sell a balanced iron condor with 200 point wings. The four legs and their premiums in index points might look like this. Sell the 23,800 call at 60. Buy the 24,000 call at 25. Sell the 23,200 put at 65. Buy the 23,000 put at 28.

The call spread brings in 60 minus 25, which is 35 points. The put spread brings in 65 minus 28, which is 37 points. Your net credit is 35 plus 37, which is 72 points. With a NIFTY lot size of 65 units (always confirm the current lot on the NSE circular, as it is revised from time to time), that credit is worth 72 multiplied by 65, which is ₹4,680. That ₹4,680 is your maximum profit, and you keep all of it if NIFTY closes anywhere between 23,200 and 23,800 at expiry.

Now the risk. Each wing is 200 points wide. The maximum loss is the width minus the credit, which is 200 minus 72, that is 128 points. In rupees that is 128 multiplied by 65, which is ₹8,320. You would only suffer that full loss if NIFTY closed at or beyond 24,000 on the upside or at or below 23,000 on the downside. So you are risking ₹8,320 to make ₹4,680, a reward to risk of about 0.56 to 1, justified by a wide profit band.

The breakevens frame the trade. The upper breakeven is the short call plus the credit, 23,800 plus 72, which is 23,872. The lower breakeven is the short put minus the credit, 23,200 minus 72, which is 23,128. So your profit zone runs from 23,128 to 23,872, a span of 744 points around a spot of 23,500. As long as NIFTY drifts inside that band into expiry, the trade works, and full profit lands if it finishes between the short strikes.

In practice you would rarely hold to the bitter end. If after a few quiet days the position shows, say, half of the maximum profit, many traders simply close all four legs and book it, freeing the margin and sidestepping the late week gamma risk entirely. Booking about ₹2,340 of a ₹4,680 maximum in two or three days, then redeploying, is often a better use of capital than squeezing the last points over a nervous expiry day.

Worked example: a BANKNIFTY monthly iron condor

BANKNIFTY moves further and faster, and it trades only on monthly expiries that settle on the last Tuesday of the month, so the strikes and widths are larger and the clock is slower. Imagine BANKNIFTY at 51,000 with about a month to expiry. You build an iron condor with 500 point wings. Sell the 52,000 call at 220. Buy the 52,500 call at 120. Sell the 50,000 put at 210. Buy the 49,500 put at 115.

The call spread credit is 220 minus 120, which is 100 points. The put spread credit is 210 minus 115, which is 95 points. The net credit is 100 plus 95, which is 195 points. With a BANKNIFTY lot size of 30 units (again, verify the current lot on the latest NSE circular, since lot sizes change periodically), the credit equals 195 multiplied by 30, which is ₹5,850. That is your maximum profit, earned if BANKNIFTY finishes between 50,000 and 52,000 at expiry.

The maximum loss is the 500 point width minus the 195 point credit, which is 305 points. In rupees that is 305 multiplied by 30, which is ₹9,150, suffered only if BANKNIFTY closes at or beyond 52,500 up or 49,500 down. The upper breakeven is 52,000 plus 195, which is 52,195, and the lower breakeven is 50,000 minus 195, which is 49,805. The profit zone therefore spans 49,805 to 52,195, about 2,390 points wide around the spot.

Notice how the monthly clock changes the feel. With a month to run, daily time decay is modest, so you are not collecting much per day at first, but you also have plenty of room before any single day move threatens a short strike. As expiry approaches, decay accelerates and you watch the breached side more closely. The wider 500 point band absorbs the larger swings BANKNIFTY is known for, which is exactly why the strategy is scaled up for this index rather than copied verbatim from NIFTY.

Adjusting and defending an iron condor

No matter how careful your strikes, the market will sometimes drift toward one wing. Adjustments are how you defend the position rather than simply hoping. The trigger for an adjustment is usually defined in advance, for example when the index touches or breaches one of your short strikes, when the delta of the tested side grows beyond a level you are comfortable with, or when the position reaches a preset loss limit.

The most common defensive move is to roll the untested side closer to the money. If the index is falling toward your short put, your call spread is now far away and almost worthless, so you can close it and sell a fresh call spread nearer the new price. This brings in extra credit, which widens your overall breakeven on the threatened side and reduces the net loss if the move continues. You are using the safe side to subsidise the tested side.

A second option is to roll the tested spread itself further out, either to strikes that are deeper out of the money or to a later expiry, to buy time and distance. Rolling out in time can give the index room to come back, but it also extends your exposure, so it is not a free lunch. A third option is to convert the structure, for instance by tightening into an iron butterfly or simply closing the losing spread and keeping the winning one as a single credit spread.

The simplest and often wisest adjustment is no adjustment at all: just close the trade. If a position has hit your maximum acceptable loss, taking the defined loss and walking away preserves capital and discipline. Every adjustment adds complexity, costs and new risk, so it should earn its place. Decide your adjustment rules before you enter, write them down, and follow them mechanically rather than improvising under pressure when the index is moving against you.

Booking profits and managing time decay

The engine of an iron condor is theta, the gain from time decay. Every day the index spends inside your range, the short options lose a little value and the trade earns. But decay is not linear, and the relationship between reward and remaining risk shifts as expiry nears, which is why exit discipline matters as much as entry.

A widely followed rule among premium sellers is to book the trade once it has captured a healthy share of the maximum profit rather than waiting for every last point. Closing at around half to two thirds of the maximum credit is common, because the final stretch of profit takes disproportionately long to arrive and exposes you to rising gamma. The points still on the table at that stage are simply not worth the late expiry risk for many traders.

Time decay accelerates sharply in the final days, which is a double edged sword. It can deliver quick gains if the index sits still, but it also means a small move produces an outsized swing in the position value because gamma is high. Weekly NIFTY condors live entirely in this fast decay zone, so they demand closer monitoring than monthly trades, where the decay and the risk both build more gently.

Set both a profit target and a loss limit when you open the trade, and treat them as non negotiable. A practical framework is to book profit at a chosen percentage of the credit, exit at a defined multiple of the credit as a loss, and avoid carrying a tested position into the last hours of expiry where a single tick can be decisive. The goal is a repeatable process with small, controlled outcomes, not a hero trade.

Costs and taxes on an iron condor in India

A four legged strategy means four legs of charges on the way in and potentially four on the way out, so transaction costs deserve real attention. Each leg attracts brokerage (often a flat fee per order with discount brokers), exchange transaction charges, SEBI turnover fees, stamp duty, and Securities Transaction Tax. On top of all the brokerage and statutory charges sits Goods and Services Tax at 18 percent. With eight or so order legs over the life of the trade, these costs add up and can meaningfully dent a thin credit.

Securities Transaction Tax, or STT, applies to options. On the sell side of options it is charged on the option premium, and crucially, if an in the money option is exercised or settled at expiry rather than squared off, STT can be levied on the settlement value, which is far larger than the premium. This is one practical reason many traders square off their condor legs before expiry rather than letting in the money short legs go to settlement, where the STT treatment is harsher.

Because the net credit on a single iron condor can be modest, costs as a percentage of the credit can be surprisingly high, especially on narrow wing, low premium NIFTY weekly trades. Before placing the trade, estimate the all in cost using your broker brokerage and charges calculator, and judge the credit net of those costs. A condor that looks attractive on gross premium can look far less so once realistic charges are subtracted.

On the income tax side, gains from trading futures and options on a recognised exchange are generally treated as non speculative business income for active traders, which is different from the flat rates that apply to some other asset classes such as crypto. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and the prevailing rules, so this is general education rather than tax advice, and you should consult a qualified professional for your own situation.

Common mistakes and risk management

The first and most expensive mistake is selling strikes too close to the money chasing a bigger credit. The fat premium feels good, but the narrow profit zone means the index breaches a short strike far more often than the trader expected. Discipline around delta and distance, rather than greed for premium, is what keeps the win rate high enough to make the strategy work over many trades.

The second mistake is ignoring volatility. Selling an iron condor when implied volatility is already low gives you a thin credit and leaves you exposed to a volatility spike that inflates the options you are short. Selling into elevated volatility that you expect to fall is the structurally favourable setup. An iron condor is short vega, so the volatility environment is not a detail, it is central to the trade.

A third mistake is having no plan and no position size discipline. Because the loss is defined, some traders treat the iron condor as safe and oversize it, only to find that several losing condors in a trending market can do real damage. Size each position so that the defined maximum loss is a small fraction of your capital, and never let a single trade threaten your account. Defined risk is not the same as no risk.

Finally, beware event risk and the temptation to fight a strong trend. Iron condors hate decisive directional moves and volatility expansions, which is exactly what major events and breakouts produce. Avoid initiating fresh condors right before scheduled high impact events unless you have deliberately positioned for the volatility crush, and resist the urge to keep adjusting a clearly broken trade. Knowing when to take the small defined loss and step aside is the mark of a mature option seller.

Putting the iron condor to work

The iron condor rewards patience and process over prediction. It does not need a forecast of direction, only a sensible view that the index will stay within a range while volatility cools. That makes it one of the most useful tools in an Indian index options trader toolkit, particularly for the long stretches when NIFTY and BANKNIFTY simply chop sideways and directional traders struggle.

To recap the essentials: you sell an out of the money call spread and an out of the money put spread on the same expiry to collect a net credit; your maximum profit is that credit, your maximum loss is the wing width minus the credit, and your breakevens sit just outside the short strikes. You want high implied volatility that you expect to fall, a range bound market, strikes chosen by delta and confirmed against support and resistance, and a clear plan for profit booking and adjustment written before you enter.

The honest way to learn all this is to do it without money on the line first. Build the four legs on a strategy builder, watch the payoff diagram form, place the trade in a paper account, and follow it through quiet days, tested wings, adjustments and expiry. Do that across many trades and the abstract numbers in this guide become instinct. That is exactly what First Plan India is built for: live charts, an option chain, a strategy builder and a paper trading account so you can practise the iron condor on NIFTY and BANKNIFTY with zero downside.

A final word. Everything here is educational content meant to build your understanding of how the iron condor works, not a recommendation to take any specific trade. Options carry real risk, the examples use illustrative numbers, and market conditions, lot sizes, expiry rules and charges all change over time. Learn the mechanics deeply, practise on paper, manage risk strictly, and consult a qualified financial professional before committing real capital.

Frequently asked questions

What is an iron condor in simple terms?

An iron condor is a four leg options strategy where you sell one out of the money call spread and one out of the money put spread on the same index and expiry. You collect a net credit upfront and keep the full amount if the index stays between your two short strikes until expiry. It is a defined risk, market neutral trade that profits when the market moves sideways.

How much money do I need to trade an iron condor on NIFTY?

Because an iron condor is a hedged, defined risk position, the margin under India SPAN plus exposure system is far lower than a naked strangle, often a fraction of it. The exact margin depends on the strikes, wing width and volatility, so check your broker margin calculator before trading. You also need enough capital to absorb the defined maximum loss comfortably as a small part of your account.

When is the best time to enter an iron condor?

The ideal setup is when implied volatility is high relative to its recent range and you expect it to fall, with the index trading in a range rather than trending. Selling rich premium into elevated volatility that then deflates is the structurally favourable condition. Many traders avoid opening fresh condors right before major scheduled events because a large gap can breach a short strike.

What is the maximum loss on an iron condor?

The maximum loss equals the wing width minus the net credit received, multiplied by the lot size. Since both spreads share the same width and only one side can be breached at expiry, the credit from the safe side cushions the loss on the tested side. The worst case is fixed and known the moment you enter, which is the main appeal of the structure.

Does BANKNIFTY still have weekly expiry for iron condors?

No. BANKNIFTY weekly expiry was discontinued in November 2024, and the index now trades on monthly expiries only, settling on the last Tuesday of the month. On the NSE, weekly options are available only for the NIFTY 50, which expires every Tuesday. So a BANKNIFTY iron condor today is a monthly trade, while NIFTY condors can be weekly or monthly.

How do I adjust an iron condor when it goes against me?

The common defences are to roll the untested side closer to collect more credit, to roll the tested spread further out in strike or time, or to convert the structure, for example into an iron butterfly or a single credit spread. Often the best choice is simply to close the trade at your predefined loss limit. Decide your adjustment rules before you enter and follow them mechanically.

Is the iron condor a good strategy for beginners in India?

It can be, because the risk is defined and capped, which is safer than naked option selling. However it has four legs, costs add up, and managing a tested position takes practice. The sensible path is to learn the mechanics and adjustments on a paper trading account first, starting with slower monthly trades, before risking real capital. This is education, not financial advice.

What lot sizes apply to NIFTY and BANKNIFTY iron condors?

At present a NIFTY lot is 65 units and a BANKNIFTY lot is 30 units, so one point of premium is worth that many rupees per lot. The exchange revises lot sizes periodically, so always confirm the current figure on the latest NSE circular before sizing your trade. Lot size directly scales your maximum profit, maximum loss and margin.