Capital requirement differences between Iron Condor and Short Strangle

F&O
1

Hello. I’m new to options trading. I wanted to know about the capital requirements of an Iron Condor and a Short Strangle so I went to Zerodha’s F&O Margin Calculator. The strategy details and requirements for both strategies were as follows:

Note: I used 1 lot for both trades.

  1. Short Strangle

Trade:
Sell NIFTY 7100 PE
Sell NIFTY 9100 CE

Capital required: Rs.1,33,669

  1. Iron Condor

Trade:

Sell NIFTY 7100 PE
Sell NIFTY 9100 CE
Buy NIFTY 6800 PE
Buy NIFTY 9300 CE

Capital required: Rs: 1,19,029

Usually people say that Iron Condors require a much smaller capital than Short Strangles but if you compare the above two strategies, the capital required for Iron Condor is just Rs. 14,000 less as compared to that of the Short Strangle (about 10% difference). If this is the case, then why do people say that Iron Condors require a much smaller capital as compared to Short Strangles. Is the difference this small or am I missing out on something?

Thank you.

1 Like
2

What you said is currently true for US markets and hopefully it is going to be implemented from 1st May in India too. But amid this CORONA lock down, the date may be extended.

3

So in the US markets, what’s the approximate difference between the capital required for Iron Condor and Short Strangle?