Opening Orders

The following page covers information regarding opening (entry) orders that bots manage.

All bots are designed to carry one position at a time. When a bot exits its current position, it will seek out a new position as long as it is within a valid time window if you have defined "Earliest Entry Time" and/or "Latest Entry Time" and also meets the bot's "Days of Week" filter, if any.

When a bot is instructed to find a new position, it'll pull down the option chain and find the appropriate contract based on the bot's entry conditions. The bot will submit multiple limit orders until it gets a fill. In the event that the bot fails to find a valid contract to enter or is unable to get a fill, it will stop trying and then try again later.

Here are some errors you may encounter at order entry.

Insufficient buying power for this order

Your broker rejected the order due to insufficient buying power. Bots are unaware of how much buying power is available and will simply attempt to use whatever they are instructed to use. Your broker will ultimately decide whether or not a bot is allowed to enter a new position. If a bot's opening order is rejected due to insufficient buying power, it will attempt again later until it is able to enter a new position.

No valid position found matching entry conditions

This indicates that the bot searched the option chain and was unable to find a contract that matched the entry conditions that you specified. This could either mean that your entry conditions are invalid or that the current market environment doesn't support your entry conditions. Review your entry conditions for accuracy. If they are accurate, sit tight, because the bot will try periodically to enter a new position. It will continue to do so until entry conditions are met. On rare occasions, this error can be the result of being unable to connect to your brokerage account.

Unable to open ____ because the account currently holds the opposite position

When a bot is ready to enter a new position, it'll identify a target contract and strike based on the bot's parameters. Before entering opening orders, the bot will check all positions in your brokerage account (not just WT positions), and if you're holding any positions in your brokerage account that conflict with what the bot wants, the bot will not enter a new trade and check again in 60 seconds. It will continue to do this and only enter if the target strikes don't conflict with anything you're currently carrying.

A conflict is when your bot wants to open a short strike but you are holding that strike long. Or the bot wants a long strike and you are holding it short. That's considered a conflict. Opening a short strike when you are already short that strike is okay. Likewise, adding to an existing long is fine. The bots won't decrement any existing positions, but they can increment them.

Before a bot enters a new position, it will examine the bid/ask spreads along the option chain. If the bot detects too many anomalies in market prices due to poor liquidity, the bot will not enter a new position and will instead wait for the prices to normalize.

Additionally, bots are designed to not modify any existing positions in your brokerage account that are not your own. For more on this, reference the error above: "Unable to open ____ because the account currently holds the opposite position."