Creating bot clones and templates in the Option Alpha autotrading platform allows you to quickly and easily reuse and share entire trading strategies. You can clone your own bots or bots shared in the Community. Repeatable templates enable you to edit and modify strategies to fit your portfolio.
Cloning an existing bot (:30)
A clone is a copy of an existing bot. To clone a bot from your portfolio, click on the gear icon and select “Clone Bot.”
You can rename the bot and adjust any of the global settings. Bot capital allocation limits are calculated at position entry.
You can always modify any bot-level inputs on the clone settings page. For example, this entire trading strategy has been cloned, but the ticker symbol is now changed to GLD. The change is reflected throughout all automations within the bot.
All automations and custom inputs used in the original bot are automatically transferred to the clone. By default, the bot and all automations are turned off when the bot is cloned. Simply toggle to “On” when you are ready for the new bot to be active.
To edit an automation’s inputs, select the automation and change the variable input fields. Any changes made will only be reflected in the new cloned bot.
Cloning is an efficient way to take the framework of a bot and instantly replicate and modify its settings without creating an entire bot from scratch.
Creating a new template (2:38)
Templates enable you to save and reuse a bot in the future, where it can be easily copied, modified, and added to your portfolio. Templates are a great way to memorialize any of your trading strategies.
For example, if you know you want to use a covered call strategy across multiple ticker symbols, it may be proactive to create a template of a covered call strategy. Creating a template allows you to quickly and efficiently use the base framework in the future.
When creating a new template, you can name it, write a description, and add an icon. You can also adjust the settings, such as position limits and inputs.
Template library (3:47)
Templates are automatically saved to a library in your account. You can access your templates from the bot homepage.
A template displays the number of clones and versions that have been created, when it was last updated and lists all automations used in the bot. You can share the template with the Option Alpha Community.
You can easily clone the template and instantly create a new bot.
You can view an automation’s details by selecting the automation. You can’t make changes to an automation through a template; you would need to create a clone to edit automations. But it does allow you to look an automation’s decision recipes, which may be helpful when observing templates shared in the Community forum.
Updating different template versions (6:05)
Updating different versions of a template is incredibly easy. Select a bot with a template you want to override and choose “Save as Template” from the settings to save the new version.
Select the version you want to override from the template list, add notes, change settings, and save the template as a new version with “Update Template.”
The template’s page will reflect that there are now two different versions of the template.
Sharing templates (6:58)
You can easily share templates to the Community by selecting the arrow icon.
The Community forum has a section where traders can share their templates and ideas.
You can search for templates or sort between recent and popular templates.
The ability to interact with other members of the Community is one of the greatest benefits of the platform. Trading strategies are shared constantly and you can discover new ideas daily. You can view all the templates and see what automations and decisions are used, and what the thought process is behind the strategies.
If you find a strategy you like, you can instantly clone it and create a bot, or save the template your library.
Once a bot is cloned to your portfolio, you can modify the settings, inputs, and automations.
Remember, if you clone a bot to your portfolio, it automatically defaults to off. You must manually turn the bot on for it to be active.
