Understanding Your Positions
The Positions Panel is the largest section on the main dashboard. It shows every position the bot is holding and gives you tools to manage them.
Two Views: Broker vs Strategy
The Positions Panel has two tabs at the top:
Broker Positions (BROKER POS)
Shows positions exactly as your broker reports them. This is the “ground truth” — what’s actually in your account. Each row shows:
- Position name — The strategy name or option symbol
- P&L — Unrealized profit/loss based on current market prices, labeled “(mark)”
- DTE — Days until the options expire
- Health — Whether all legs of the strategy are intact
- Exit — How close the position is to its exit triggers
- Close button — Manual close controls
Strategy Positions (STRAT POS)
Shows positions from Claxton’s perspective — which strategy opened each position, the entry credit, unrealized P&L, and status (open, pending close).
💡 Most of the time, stick with the Broker Positions view. It’s the most accurate and has more detail.
Understanding Grouped Positions
Multi-leg strategies (iron condors, spreads) show up as groups — a single row with a layers icon (📑). Each group is a complete strategy structure.
Click the arrow on the left side of any group to expand it and see the individual legs. Each leg shows:
- Quantity — Positive (long/bought) or negative (short/sold)
- Symbol — The full option symbol
- P&L — Per-leg profit/loss
- DTE — Days to expiration for that leg
- Cost — What you paid (or received) for that leg
Health Status
The Health column tells you if your strategy structure is complete:
- 4/4 (green) — All 4 legs of an iron condor are present. Everything is normal.
- 2/2 (green) — Both legs of a credit spread are present.
- BROKEN (3/4) (red) — A leg is missing! This means your strategy doesn’t have its full protective structure.
⚠️ A “BROKEN” health status is serious. It means a leg was closed or lost, leaving you with potentially undefined risk. The dashboard will show a warning banner. You should either close the remaining legs or investigate what happened.
Exit Status
The Exit column shows how close the position is to triggering an exit:
- 32% / 50% — Position is at 32% of max profit; profit target is 50%. Getting closer.
- -45% / -200% — Position is down 45%; stop loss is at 200%. Still within tolerance.
- BLOCKED (red) — Something is preventing the bot from exiting (hover to see why)
- PROFIT TARGET (amber) — An exit condition has been triggered
Hover over any exit status for a detailed tooltip showing:
- Current P&L percentage
- Profit target threshold
- Stop loss threshold
- Time-based stop info
Closing Positions
Close a Group (Recommended)
Click the “Close Group” button on any grouped position to close all legs together as a single order. This is the safest way to exit because it maintains the defined-risk structure.
Close Individual Legs
By default, you can’t close individual legs — this protects you from accidentally creating undefined risk. To enable per-leg closing:
- Toggle “Leg Out” switch at the top-right of the Positions Panel
- A warning banner appears: “Leg Out Mode ON: Single-leg closes enabled. Risk of DTBP rejection.”
- You can now close individual legs by expanding a group and clicking the X on each leg
⚠️ Leg Out Mode Warning: Closing one leg of a spread creates a naked position, which may be rejected by your broker (DTBP = Day Trading Buying Power). Use this only if you know what you’re doing.
Special Warnings
Entries Halted
A red banner saying ”⛔ ENTRIES HALTED” means the bot has detected a structural integrity issue and stopped opening new trades. Click “Clear Entry Block” once you’ve resolved the underlying issue.
Wide Spread Block
If the bot tries to close a position but the bid-ask spread is too wide, a dialog appears asking you to confirm. Wide spreads mean you might get a bad fill price. You can either:
- Cancel — Wait for better pricing
- Force Close Anyway — Accept the wide spread and close at market
DTBP Rejection
If a close order is rejected by the broker, a red banner shows the rejection reason with a “Retry Group Close” button. This usually means the broker needs all legs closed simultaneously.