Quote from jwcapital:
I am not a big fan of bull put spreads. The "insurance" leg doesn't seem to offer much protection. For example, let's look at a recent trade: an ATM put from Thursday close going into Friday of last week. The ATM put was sold for $14.00, and an OTM put was bought for $7.00. The ATM put closed on Friday at $30.00, and the OTM put closed at $16.00. In one day, this spread widened and lost about $7.00 per spread. If the "insurance leg is closer to the ATM put's strike, then it tracks better. Yes, the insurance provides a stop loss, but still at a high price.