A variant on a bear ratio spread. It is a bearish put option strategy which involves buying at-the-money or mildly out-of-the-money put options and concurrently selling a smaller number of in-the-money, higher-strike put options which expire in the same month. This strategy doesn’t require upfront payments and inherently has the potential for uncapped profits. The unlimited profit possibility is unavailable in the ratio bear spread.

The short ratio bear spread is also sometimes known as a short bear ratio spread, short put ratio spread, short ratio put spread, and put backspread.