A covered strangle traditionally involves buying stock, selling and a call and put, with the call's strike price higher than that of the put's. A strategy suited to a rising market.

A call spread, or vertical spread, is generally used is a moderately volatile market and can be configured to be either bullish or bearish depending on the strike prices chosen:

• Purchasing a call with a lower strike price than the written call provides a bullish strategy
• Purchasing a call with a higher strike price than the written call provides a bearish strategy