Entry Conditions

Below a backtest position's Overview fields, you'll find fields for Entry Conditions (entry timing and strike selection). Those fields are explained below.

Entry Frequency (Required): This determines how frequently to enter trades. Your choices are:

Enter Second Position (Optional): This is only available if your Entry Frequency from above is Sequential. If you have sequential entry, you have the ability to double up your position by entering a second trade, with an existing trade already open. This doubling up will occur at a designated Days to Expiration and time of day for the existing trade.

This feature can be used however your creativity allows, but one common use case is when holding a trade that is near expiration. Rather than spending brokerage fees and losing to slippage by closing the existing position, just hold onto it until expiration while entering a new trade with a future expiration.

Days of Week (Optional for Sequential and Position Trigger): Sequential and Position Trigger can enter at different days and times of the day. If you would like to restrict those to certain days of the week, you can do so with this field.

Earliest Time of Day (Optional): The earliest time of day to enter a new trade.

Latest Time of Day (Optional): The latest time of day to enter a new trade.

Same Day Re-entry (Optional): This is only available if your Entry Frequency from above is Sequential. If you only want to enter a new trade based on the profit/loss result of the previous trade, you can specify that here. This will restrict the backtest from subsequent entries each day only when the last trade closes at a profit or a loss (based on your choice). This filter is not analyzed for the first trade each day, so the bot will not go back and look at a trade closed on a prior day. This is only used when cycling into new trades intraday.

Target DTE (Required): Target days to expiration for each new trade. The backtest will find and select the expiration closest to this number of days to expiration at entry.

Minimum DTE (Optional): If you would like to ensure that all trades are at least a certain number of days to expiration, enter that here. If your target is more than 5 DTE and you do not specify a minimum, the backtester will accept any days to expiration that is within 50% of your target.

Maximum DTE (Optional): If you would like to ensure that all trades are no more than a certain number of days to expiration, enter that here. If your target is more than 5 DTE and you do not specify a minimum, the backtester will accept any days to expiration that is within 50% of your target.

For positions that include put options, the following fields are available to determine which strikes to select.

Put Strike Target (Required):

Put Spread Strike Selection

Any put that includes a spread, including Credit Spreads, Debit Spreads, Iron Butterflys, and Iron Condors, use the following fields to configure how to set up the spread.

Spread Strike Target Type (Required): This controls how the long strike of a Put Credit Spread is selected or the short strike of a Put Debit Spread is selected.

For positions that include call options, the following fields are available to determine which strikes to select.

Call Strike Target (Required):

Call Spread Strike Selection

Any call that includes a spread, including Credit Spreads, Debit Spreads, Iron Butterflys, and Iron Condors, use the following fields to configure how to set up the spread.

Spread Strike Target Type (Required): This controls how the long strike of a Call Credit Spread is selected or the short strike of a Call Debit Spread is selected.