Monitored Stops
Monitored stops are stop conditions that bots will monitor throughout the day. Unlike profit targets, monitored stops do not utilize standing orders. You can configure as many monitored stops as you wish. Your bot will monitor all of them and close your position when the first monitored stop triggers.
Slippage is likely with stop losses
You can lose significantly more on your position than your designated stop loss (percent, premium, delta, or in-the-money). Bot stop losses are not recommended for rapidly moving markets.
If you are in a rapidly moving market, consider using an Aggressive Exit Speed and Monitored Stop Sensitivity.
It may also help to set your stop below the level that you want your actual exit. If you want to stop at 100%, you may find that configuring your bot with an 80% stop loss will get you closer to your 100% loss at order fill. These targets will vary depending on your bot settings.
If you would like to close the position at a certain stop loss, you may enter that here. When a stop loss is defined for a bot, the bot will monitor the position's current profit level, and if/when it reaches your designated stop loss percent, the bot will close the position at the best available price.
Unlike with bot profit targets, stop losses do not utilize standing closing orders. These are dangerous with options and are prone to poor or premature exits. Bots monitor market prices every 10 seconds. If the market price meets your stop (based on the Monitored Stop Sensitivity field explained below), the bot will trigger the stop loss by beginning a forced closing process.
Due to the nature of moving markets and slippage, the price at which your bot exits a position could be significantly beyond your designated stop loss. To anticipate and prepare for this slippage, you may wish to configure a bot stop loss below your desired level. The actual exit price will likely be closer to your desired exit if you do this.
Unlike with profit targets, changing the stop loss on a bot will apply to currently open positions.
If you would like to close the position at a certain price, you may enter that here. When a premium value is defined for a bot, the bot will monitor the position's current MID price, and if/when it reaches your designated stop value, the bot will close the position at the best available price.
Unlike with bot profit targets, premium value stops do not utilize standing closing orders. These are dangerous with options and are prone to poor or premature exits. Bots monitor market prices every 10 seconds. If the market price meets your stop (based on the Monitored Stop Sensitivity field explained below), the bot will trigger the stop by beginning a forced closing process.
Due to the nature of moving markets and slippage, the price at which your bot exits a position could be significantly beyond your designated stop loss. To anticipate and prepare for this slippage, you may wish to configure a bot stop loss below your desired level. The actual exit price will likely be closer to your desired exit if you do this.
Unlike with profit targets, changing the premium stop on a bot will apply to currently open positions.
If you would like to close the position when it reaches a particular delta value, you may enter that here. With this set, when your position reaches this delta value based on current market conditions, the bot will start a process to close your position at an ideal price based on current market value. Bots monitor market prices every 10 seconds. If the market price meets your stop (based on the Monitored Stop Sensitivity field explained below), the bot will trigger the stop loss by beginning a forced closing process.
Due to the nature of moving markets and slippage, the delta at which your bot exits a position could be significantly beyond your designated delta stop. To anticipate and prepare for this slippage, you may wish to configure a delta stop that will trigger before your target exit delta is reached.
Unlike with profit targets, changing the delta value stop on a bot will apply to currently open positions.
If you would like to close the position when it is in-the-money (ITM) by a certain percentage value, you may enter that here. With this set, when your position reaches this ITM level (greater than or equal to), the bot will start a process to close your position at an ideal price based on current market value. Bots monitor market prices every 10 seconds. If the market price meets your stop (based on the Monitored Stop Sensitivity field explained below), the bot will trigger the stop loss by beginning a forced closing process.
Unlike with profit targets, changing the in-the-money percent stop on a bot will apply to currently open positions.
If you would like to close the position when it is out-of-the-money (OTM) by a certain percentage value, you may enter that here. With this set, when your position reaches this OTM level (less than or equal to), the bot will start a process to close your position at an ideal price based on current market value. Bots monitor market prices every 10 seconds. If the market price meets your stop (based on the Monitored Stop Sensitivity field explained below), the bot will trigger the stop loss by beginning a forced closing process.
Unlike with profit targets, changing the out-of-the-money percent stop on a bot will apply to currently open positions.
This setting will control how quickly your bot confirms a valid stop and decides to close your position.
The choices for sensitivity are:
- Super Patient - The bot will confirm a stop when 5 consecutive 10-second checks are at your stop level
- Patient - The bot will confirm a stop when 4 consecutive 10-second checks are at your stop level
- Normal - The bot will confirm a stop when 3 consecutive 10-second checks are at your stop level
- Aggressive - The bot will confirm a stop when 2 consecutive 10-second checks are at your stop level
- Super Aggressive - The bot will confirm a stop the first time a 10-second check is at your stop level
There are built-in liquidity filters that will prevent a bot from confirming an Aggressive stop in the event of temporary market illiquidity. This happens frequently when there is a spike intraday in markets. When this happens, market makers back off of bid/ask spreads, and those spreads get very wide. This skews the market/mid price of options and makes them look much more expensive than they actually are. If a bot sees this, it will not consider the stop valid and will wait for the bid/ask spread to tighten up. This usually only takes a few seconds to happen.
Converting Monitored Stop Sensitivity to Seconds to Confirm
Here is how long each sensitivity setting will translate to the time it takes from when a bot first hits its stop level and when the bot confirms the stop (initiating the close process):
- Super Patient - Stop triggers in ~45 seconds (40s min, 50s max, 45s average)
- Patient - Stop triggers in ~35 seconds (30s min, 40s max, 35s average)
- Normal - Stop triggers in ~25 seconds (20s min, 30s max, 25s average)
- Aggressive - Stop triggers in ~15 seconds (10s min, 20s max, 15s average)
- Super Aggressive - Stop triggers in ~5 seconds (0s min, 10s max, 5s average)
How did we get here?
For Super Aggressive sensitivity, the bot will check every 10 seconds. Your position can hit its stop at any moment in time relative to the 10-second interval. If the position hits your stop level the instant before the bot checks, then your bot will confirm the stop almost immediately, for < 1 second to confirm your stop. However, if the position hits the stop level immediately after the bot checks on its 10-second interval, then it'll have to wait another 10 seconds or so before the bot sees it and stops. This is why, with Super Aggressive sensitivity, you'll wait somewhere between 0 and 10 seconds to confirm the stop, for an average of about 5 seconds.
For Aggressive sensitivity, the bot still checks every 10 seconds and must see two consecutive checks at the stop level.
For two in a row, the first stop detection will occur between 0 and 10 seconds of occurring. The bot will detect the stop at about 0 seconds if the position hits your stop almost immediately before the bot checks. The bot will detect the stop at about 10 seconds if the position hits your stop immediately after the bot checks, and it must wait another 10 seconds to see it. So, time between these two consecutive hits will be somewhere between 10-20 seconds, for about 15 seconds on average.
For each slower setting that you progress through, you can add 10 seconds to your anticipated stop time.
Due to some randomness in runtimes and network latency, these durations can deviate by a couple seconds here and there, but the numbers above represent averages.
If you wish to restrict monitored stops based on bot variable values, whether controlled by this bot or another bot, you may do that by adding bot variables to your bot's entry condition.
For more information on this, please reference our guide page on Variables