Roadmap

Claxton is on a journey from a working options trading bot to a fully institutional-grade options platform. Here’s where we are and where we’re headed.

Overall Progress

Phase Breakdown

What Each Phase Delivers

✅ Phase 1 — Core Pipeline & Filters

The foundation. A 9-stage deterministic pipeline that takes a market scan all the way through to order execution. Includes liquidity gates, IV rank filtering, and market hours safety.

✅ Phase 2 — Probability & EV Scoring

Every trade gets scored on its expected value. The bot calculates probability of profit, expected return after slippage and commissions, and only takes trades with positive edge.

✅ Phase 3 — Regime Detection & Market Context

The bot reads the market before trading. Using EMA/SMA crossovers, ADX trend strength, and volatility risk premium, it knows whether we’re in a bull trend, bear trend, or choppy sideways market — and adjusts accordingly.

✅ Phase 4 — Wheel Strategy & Corporate Guard

Added the wheel strategy (cash-secured puts → covered calls) and corporate event protection. The bot avoids earnings dates, dividend ex-dates, and other events that could blow up a position.

✅ Phase 5 — Hardening & Observability

Production hardening. Rate limiting, error recovery, health monitoring, structured logging, and alerting. The system can run unattended without surprises.

✅ Phase 6 — Backtesting Engine

Test any strategy against historical data before risking real money. Supports parameter sweeps to find optimal settings. Uses synthetic option chains derived from real market data.

✅ Phase 7 — Portfolio Risk Management

Real-time portfolio Greeks monitoring (delta, gamma, theta, vega), Value-at-Risk calculations, scenario analysis, and automatic risk triggers. The bot knows its total exposure at all times.

✅ Phase 8 — Advanced Strategy Intelligence

IV surface analysis with volatility skew and term structure. Smart DTE selection based on the shape of the volatility curve. The bot doesn’t just find trades — it finds the optimal trades.

🔨 Phase 9 — Multi-Broker Migration (85%)

Currently in progress. Moving from Tradier-only to a multi-broker architecture. The broker abstraction layer and IBKR adapter are built. Waiting on IBKR paper account activation to run end-to-end validation.

What’s done:

• Broker abstraction layer (swap brokers without changing strategy logic)
• Symbol normalization across broker formats
• Tradier provider (reference implementation)
• IBKR Client Portal REST provider
• Shadow mode infrastructure (mirror trades for validation)
• Audit logging for broker comparison

What’s left:

• IBKR end-to-end paper trade validation
• 48-hour shadow mode burn-in test

📋 Phase 10 — Paper Trading & Shadow Mode

Comprehensive paper trading framework. Run strategies in simulation with full position tracking, then graduate to shadow mode where paper trades mirror live ones for comparison.

📋 Phase 11 — Performance Analytics & Reporting

Advanced reporting: strategy-level attribution, risk-adjusted returns, drawdown analysis, monthly/quarterly reports, and comparison benchmarks. Know exactly how each strategy contributes to your portfolio.

What “Institutional Grade” Means

An institutional-grade platform has:

• Multi-broker redundancy — Not dependent on a single broker
• Comprehensive risk controls — Portfolio-level limits, scenario analysis, automatic hedging
• Full audit trail — Every decision logged and explainable
• Backtested strategies — All strategies validated against historical data
• Real-time monitoring — Greeks, P&L, exposure visible at a glance
• Automated recovery — Self-healing from errors, outages, and unexpected market moves
• Performance attribution — Know exactly what’s working and what isn’t

We’re closing in. Phases 1-8 delivered the entire core trading intelligence stack — from pipeline to risk management to IV surface analysis. Phase 9 added multi-broker architecture. The remaining phases add operational validation and reporting polish, but the core platform is already institutional-caliber.