Strategy Settings Explained

Every setting in the Strategy Builder has a purpose. This page explains each one in plain English so you know exactly what you’re configuring.

Entry Conditions

These determine when and how the bot opens new trades.

DTE Range (Days to Expiration)

• Min DTE — The earliest expiration the bot will consider
• Max DTE — The latest expiration the bot will consider
• Setting both to 0 means “only trade options expiring today” (0DTE)
• Example: Min 7, Max 14 means the bot only looks at options expiring in 1-2 weeks

Short Delta Target

How far out-of-the-money your sold option strikes will be. Delta is a number between 0 and 1 that roughly represents the probability of the option expiring in-the-money.

• 0.05 — Very far out of the money (~5% chance of being breached). Safest, but collects the least premium.
• 0.10 — A popular conservative choice. ~10% probability.
• 0.16 — Standard “one standard deviation” target. ~16% probability.
• 0.30 — Closer to the money. More premium, but higher risk.
• 0.50 — At the money. Used for iron flies. Highest premium, most risk.

💡 Lower delta = safer strikes = less premium collected. It’s a risk/reward tradeoff.

Long Delta Target

For strategies with protective “wing” legs (iron condors, credit spreads), this controls where the bought options go. Typically set to about half the short delta.

The distance between your short and long strikes determines your wing width — the wider the wings, the more capital required but the more premium collected.

Wing Width

A fallback value in strike price points. If the bot can’t find strikes matching your delta targets exactly, it uses this fixed width. For SPX, 10 points is common. For SPY, 5 points.

Minimum Premium

The smallest credit the bot will accept to open a trade. This prevents the bot from entering positions with tiny premiums that aren’t worth the risk or commissions.

Recommended minimums:

• Iron Condors: $1.00+
• Credit Spreads: $0.75+
• Iron Flies: $3.00+

⚠️ Don’t set this to $0. Without a minimum premium, the bot may open trades that collect $0.05 credit and then trigger chaotic exits.

IV Rank Filter

Implied Volatility Rank measures how high or low current implied volatility is compared to the past year.

• 0% means IV is at its lowest point in the past year
• 100% means IV is at its highest point in the past year

Options sellers typically want higher IV (20-80%), since higher volatility means higher premiums collected.

Market Hours & Time Window

• Market Hours Only — Only trade during regular market hours (9:30 AM - 4:00 PM ET)
• Start Time / End Time — Further restrict when the bot can enter trades. For example, 09:45 - 15:30 avoids the volatile open and close.

Moving Average Filter

Optional technical filter that blocks entries unless price meets certain conditions relative to moving averages (SMA 20, 50, 200). Presets available:

• “Price above SMA20” — Only trade if the underlying is above its 20-day average
• “SMA50 above SMA200” — Only trade in bullish long-term trend (golden cross)

Exit Conditions

These determine when and why the bot closes existing positions.

Profit Target (%)

Close the position when it has captured this percentage of the maximum profit. For credit strategies, max profit is the credit received.

• 50% — Close when you’ve made half the credit (most popular)
• 75% — Hold longer for more profit, but more risk of reversal
• 25% — Very conservative; take profits quickly

💡 50% profit target is the most common setting. Research shows that taking profits at 50% improves win rate significantly compared to holding to expiration.

Stop Loss (%)

Close the position when the loss reaches this percentage of the credit received.

• 100% — Close when you’ve lost 1x what you collected (very tight)
• 200% — Close at 2x credit lost (common default)
• 300% — Give the trade more room, but risk larger losses

Time Stop (DTE)

Close all positions when they reach this many days to expiration. Useful for rolling strategies — you might close at 7 DTE and let the bot open a new position.

Time Stop (Time of Day)

For 0DTE strategies, close at a specific time. Default is 15:45 (3:45 PM ET), giving 15 minutes before market close.

Trailing Stop

An advanced exit that locks in profits as the trade moves in your favor:

• Activation Profit — Don’t start trailing until the position has reached this profit level
• Trail Amount — How far back from the peak profit the stop trails
• Basis — What to measure: the full group P&L, tracked legs only, or just the short legs

Example: Activation at 30% profit, trailing by 15%. If the trade reaches 50% profit and then drops back to 35%, the trailing stop closes it.

Position Sizing

Fixed Mode

Always trade a set number of contracts. Simple and predictable.

Risk-Based Mode

The bot calculates the number of contracts based on:

• Risk Per Trade ($) — Maximum dollars you want to risk on this trade
• Max Contracts — Hard cap on contracts regardless of the calculation

Example: If your max loss per contract is $500 and your risk per trade is $1,000, the bot will trade 2 contracts (capped at your max contracts setting).

Advanced Entry Filters

These are available in the Advanced Builder tab:

Min Wing Width (Points)

Prevents the bot from creating strategies with dangerously narrow wings. Set to 5 for SPX to avoid 1-wide structures.

Max Bid-Ask Spread Per Leg (%)

Rejects entries where individual options have wide bid-ask spreads, which means poor pricing and potential slippage.

Min Entry Credit ($)

A dollar-amount minimum for the total credit received (all contracts combined).

Liquidity Gate

Multi-factor check ensuring the options are liquid enough to trade:

• Min Option Volume — Minimum contracts traded today per option
• Min Open Interest — Minimum open interest per option
• Max Quote Age — Reject stale quotes (in seconds)
• Min Underlying Volume — Require minimum underlying trading volume as % of average

IVR Regime Gate

Advanced filter that adjusts behavior based on IV environment. Can require minimum IV rank for premium-selling strategies.

Safeguards (Global)

These apply to all strategies and are configured in the Controls Panel on the right side of the dashboard:

• Max Bid-Ask Spread — Bot waits for better pricing if spreads are too wide
• 0DTE Close Buffer — Auto-close 0DTE positions this many minutes before market close
• Fill Price Buffer — Accounts for price slippage in paper trading
• Max Condors Per Expiry — Limits how many condors the bot opens for the same expiration
• Max Consecutive Rejections — Pauses entries after too many order rejections in a row