
Start Here
Platform

Tour
Bots 101How it worksLive demo
Tools
Automated tradingOptions backtestingWatchlist scannerPrivate community
Use cases
New investorsStock tradersActive tradersPassive investorsSwing tradersAlgorithmic traders

Templates
By trade type
Stock trading botsOptions trading bots
By strategy type
Bullish options strategiesNeutral options strategiesBearish options strategiesHedging strategies
By style
Active and high frequency botsEvent-based botsTrend trading botsMomentum trading botsStatistic and probability-based botsTechnical analysis botsEarnings strategy bots

Integrations

Pricing
Education

Courses
Overview
By experience
Beginner
What is an options contract?Stock trading vs. options tradingOptions contract specificsCall vs. put options basicsBuying options vs. selling optionsOptions profit and loss diagramsOptions pricing tablesOption moneyness (ITM, OTM, and ATM)Options pricing and the "Greeks"Options expiration and assignmentWhat's our "edge" trading options?Single vs. multi-leg options strategiesSmall account options strategies
Intermediate
Fearless, confident options tradingHistorical volatility vs. implied volatilityPredicting market movesTrade size and capital reservesPortfolio balance and beta weightingHow to choose the best options strategyHow far out to place trades?Strike price anchoring with probabilitiesTips on getting your trades filledAdvanced and contingent orders7 step options trade entry checklist
Advanced
Developing a daily trading routineHow to avoid "Black Swan" eventsAdjusting and hedging option tradesExiting options trades automaticallyOptions strategies we don't adjust (and why)Big picture adjustment strategyWhen to adjust or notAdjusting straddles and stranglesAdjusting credit spreads, iron condors, and calendarsSmarter stop-loss ordersBuilding a diversified options portfolioRolling options trades for duration and premiumOptions expiration week position checklistDealing with stock assignment and dividendsHow to free up trading margin and cash
By subject
Options basics
Why options vs. stocks?What is an options contract?Smart use of leverageOption strike priceOption premiumOption expirationOption contract multiplierProfit and loss diagramsLong call option explainedShort call option explainedLong put option explainedShort put option explainedATM, ITM, and OTM optionsCash vs. margin basicsHigh probability trading definedHow to buy a call optionHow to buy a put optionSingle-leg vs. multi-legWhat is the VIX?Is fundamental analysis dead?
Entering and exiting trades
Game of numbers7 step entry checklistStrong liquidity examplesPicking the next directionScanning for tradesOption pricing table basicsSetting up your trade tabPinning your probability of profitUsing delta for probabilitiesBuy to open vs sell to openBuy to close vs sell to closeMarket, limit, stop loss orders5 types of contingent ordersLimit ordersMarket ordersLimit on close ordersMarket on close ordersAdvanced contingent ordersTaking profits before expirationMechanics of rollingConsider future events
Options expiration
Options expiration explainedWhat is the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)?Physical vs. cash settlement optionsAmerican vs. European style optionsWeekly options expirationWeekly expiration tags/codesOptions assignment processOptions exercise processTrading timeline (duration)
Bullish options strategies
Bull put spreadBull call spreadLong callShort putBull call backspreadPut broken wing butterflyCall calendar spreadPut diagonal spreadCustom naked putCovered callSynthetic long stock
Neutral options strategies
Short straddleLong straddleIron condorsShort strangleLong strangleIron butterflyUnbalanced iron condors
Bearish options strategies
Bear call spreadBear put spreadLong putShort callBear put backspreadCall broken wing butterflyPut calendar spreadCall diagonal spreadCustom naked callCovered putSynthetic short stock
Portfolio managmeent
No guaranteed tradesDon't do something, sit thereAccount size adjustmentsAvoiding stock market overloadStocks, indexes, & ETFsMonitoring positionsCreating automatic alertsIndividual stock betaPortfolio betaBeta weighting your portfolioUncorrelated industries/sectorsSystematic vs. unsystematic riskEfficient portfolio frontierLimiting undefined risk tradesEconomic calendarConcept of legging
Options pricing and volatility
How to find option price quotesUnderstanding the mathIV vs. IV percentileProbability of profit vs. probability of touchOption probability curveBid-ask spread definedIV expected vs. actual moveThe "Greeks"Fatal pricing errorsInverse ETFsOptions parity
Adjusting trades
#1 adjustment for any tradeWhen to adjust a tradeSingle options trade vs. overall portfolioLeveraging the analyze tabCall spread adjustmentsPut spread adjustmentsShort strangle adjustmentsIron condor adjustmentsShort straddle adjustmentsCalendar spread adjustmentsDebit spread adjustmentsButterfly adjustmentsUsing stop lossesDelta hedgingRolling positionsPairs hedging

Strategies
Long callLong putShort callShort putCovered callCovered putProtective putCollar strategyLEAPSBull call debit spreadBear call credit spreadBull put credit spreadBear put debit spreadLong straddleShort straddleLong strangleShort strangleCall calendar spreadPut calendar spreadIron condorReverse iron condorIron butterflyReverse iron butterflyCall butterflyPut butterflyStrapCall diagonal spreadPut diagonal spreadCall ratio spreadPut ratio spreadCall backspreadPut backspreadLong box spreadShort box spreadReversalStock repair

Topics
OverviewAsset allocationAutomated tradingBehavioral financeBrokersCandlestick patternsChart patternsDividendsEconomic indicatorsEquity investmentsExercise & assignmentFinancial analysisFinancial historyFinancial marketsFinancial modelingFinancial theoriesFundamental analysisFuturesInvestment accountsInvestment taxesInvestor biasesMarket holidaysMarket hoursMarket indexesMarket indicatorsMomentum tradingOptionsOptions pricingOptions settlementPortfolio managementRisk managementStocksStock marketTechnical analysisTechnical indicatorsTrading commissionsTrading platformsTrading psychologyTrend trading
Resources

Workshops

Podcast

Blog
Support

Help Center
Overview
Getting started
What is a bot?Creating a botAutomation typesAutomation editorBot dashboardBot positionsBot logTemplates and cloningKey conceptsSafeguards and limitsPower of botsBest practices
Bot automations
What is an automation?Scanner automationsMonitor automationsEvent automationsEditing automationsReusing automationsCopying automationsOrdering automationsUsing custom inputsBot level inputsAutomation statusesAutomations library
Bot actions
DecisionsOpen positionClose positionNotificationsLoop symbolsLoop positionsBot tagsPosition tags
Bot examples
Genesis 1.0 botGenesis 2.0 botGenesis 3.0 botTrend trading with stocks botPortfolio trend trading botTrend trading with options botMultiple moving averages botTechnical swing trading botTrend and momentum botWeekly credit spread botRecurring iron condors botThe "Honey Badger" botHybrid spreads botHigh IV rank iron condor bot
Decision recipes
Comparing underlying symbol priceEvaluating symbol typeComparing underlying symbol propertiesEvaluating underlying symbol performanceEvaluating underlying symbol standard deviationComparing underlying symbol price to an indicatorComparing multiple underlying symbol indicatorsEvaluating underlying symbol implied volatility rankEvaluating underlying symbol earnings reportingEvaluating underlying symbol price probabilityEvaluating underlying symbol probability within rangeEvaluating bot propertiesEvaluating bot available capital for opportunitiesComparing bot position count to position typeComparing bot position count to underlying symbolEvaluating bot position count to position type and underlying symbolEvaluating bot last position activityEvaluating bot last activity with underlying symbolComparing bot active orders statusComparing bot active orders status with underlying symbolEvaluating bot position availabilityEvaluating bot tagsEvaluating opportunity availabilityEvaluating opportunity return expectationsComparing opportunity attributesComparing opportunity leg attributesComparing opportunity bid-ask spreadEvaluating opportunity probabilitiesEvaluating position performanceComparing profit target to trailing valueComparing position time to expirationComparing position durationEvaluating position underlying symbolComparing position propertiesComparing position leg propertiesEvaluating position typeEvaluating position sideComparing underlying symbol price to position legEvaluating position tagsEvaluating underlying symbol indicator propertiesComparing multiple underlying symbol indicator propertiesEvaluating MACD technical indicatorComparing Bollinger Bands to symbol priceEvaluating stochastic technical indicatorComparing VIX propertiesEvaluating market time of the dayEvaluating days of the weekEvaluating bot switches
Position statement
Activity summaryPosition detailsTrade detailsOpened positionsClosed positionsCanceled positionsOverride positionsExpired positionsPosition historyManually open positionManually close positionImport position
Order pricing
SmartPricingFinal price settingsPosition summaryOrder detailsWorking ordersManual override
Bot templates
Creating new templatesUpdating existing templatesDeleting templatesSharing templatesUpdating shared templatesTemplate best practices
Cloning bots
Cloning existing botsCloning from templateCloning from shared template
Troubleshooting
Using bot logsTesting your botsNot enough capital warningDaily position limit warningTotal position limit warningPricing anomaly warningMissing or invalid input errorDaily symbol limit errorExcessive errors failsafeOverlapping strikes failsafePrice exceeds strike-difference errorOptions expiration protocolDuplicate orders errorOptions approval level errorBot event loopsStock splits and corporate actionsSupported browsersSupported countries
Community forum
Community guidelinesCrafting your introductionSending group messagesSending private messagesAttaching bot templatesReceiving bot templatesAttaching automationsReceiving automationsFollowing tradersPosting publiclyEditing posts and messagesSubscribed discussionsUsing bookmarks
Using backtester
Running a new backtestBacktesting results summaryModifying existing backtestsMy backtestsBacktesting research databaseTop backtestsBacktesting errors
Account settings
My profileTrading accountsConnecting to TDAmeritradeConnecting to TradeStationConnecting to TradierIncompatible accountsPassword managementSession timeoutTwo-step authentication
Technical docs
Infrastructure and securityAutomation structureAutomation behaviorData feedsOrder handlingTrade enforcementsBroker rejection errorsBot limitationsProfit and lossFair value pricingDecision propertiesDecision calculationsParameter selectionCalculating probabilityPlatform indicators

Contact
Send FeedbackReport IssueEmail Us
Option AlphaOption Alpha

LoginSignup
EducationCoursesIntermediate TrackTips on Getting Your Trades Filled

Intermediate Track
Lesson
11
of
12


Fearless, Confident Options Trading
16:46


Historical Volatility vs. Implied Volatility
27:47


Predicting the Market's Next Move
25:41


Trade Size & Capital Reserves
25:44


Portfolio Balance & Beta-Weighting
24:05


Scanning for the Best Stocks & Trading Setups
7:20


How to Choose the Best Options Strategy
20:16


How Far Out Should I Place Trades?
12:13


Strike Price Anchoring with Probabilities
26:48


Tips on Getting Your Trades Filled
8:57


How to Use Advanced & Contingent Orders
20:47


7 Step Option Trade Entry Checklist
14:51

Tips on Getting Your Trades Filled

Order entry is the most important aspect of options trading. Here are some tips to get trades filled quicker and with better pricing.
Kirk Du Plessis
May 20, 2022
•
9 min video





In this video lesson I'll share 8 tips on how you can get your trades filled either faster or at better pricing. All of them are basically common sense, but might help you enter trades more efficiently in the future.

Transcript

In this video, I want to talk about some tips on getting your trades filled a little faster. For me, this whole concept of order entry, or placing trades, is the most important aspect of options training.

Enter the wrong position, the wrong strategy, or the wrong pricing, and no amount of adjusting or hedging will save. That's why we spend so much time here in track number two on entering the right trade and getting trades filled.

Today, I want to cover eight tips on how to get your trades filled, either faster or at better pricing than you are now. The first tip is patience.

The reason I put this first is I feel like a lot of people in this business, whether you get started or whether you're an experienced trader, always have a lack of patience. I do too. Patience is a hard thing to do.

You want to get trades in, you see good pricing, you want to have your order executed and filled. But sometimes, patience can be the most important thing.

What I've learned over the last eight years doing this is that there's another trade, or an opportunity, or a setup, or whatever. There's always going to be another chance to either get in or another trading opportunity. It's never worth forcing a trade into the market for the sake of trading.

Number two tries "Odd" lots. Instead of placing an order at, say, ten contracts, which is a round lot number, try nine contracts instead. We usually find that this works well. If you try placing ten contracts, try placing an order for nine contracts.

If that gets filled, place the other order for one more. Or place an order for four contracts, or six, or seven. Try something a little bit different than just say, one, or two, or five, or ten, or fifteen, et cetera. Try some of these odd lots.

Again, this is going to be a little bit different. One of the techniques that you can use, again, just trying this odd lot mentality. Again, just one little point here before I continue forward.

This is why, at least on my end, I prefer to work with a broker that charges me on a per contract basis instead of a per order basis. Everything that we do here at Option Alpha, or at least at my personal account, is on a per contract basis.

The commission would be the same, whether I did two orders of five contracts or five orders of one contract, it doesn't matter. That's just a little side note there. Number three is, try legging into a strategy.

For example, if you're training an iron condor, try entering each credit spread side independently. Enter the put credit spread side, and then try to enter the call credit spread side. I can tell you that this is not necessarily the preferred thing that you can do, it's just a strategy that you can use to fill orders.

I like to fill both sides at one time, but for example, with an iron condor, it can be a little hard to fill for individual options than all of the different pricing that has to match up, and all of the number of contracts with somebody else. It can work in some instances to try to fill each side independently.

I don't ever really prefer to do independent legs within that. I'll do a credit spread side, but I won't go out and do each leg. I won't ... Buy some calls, then go in and sell some calls, then go in and buy some puts, then sell some puts.

I won't do four particular orders, but I'll try to spread the trade out into its breakdown pieces, so credit spreads or debit spreads, something like that. Okay, try legging into a strategy.

Number four uses round number pricing. Now, this can work in both directions. Meaning that if you see a trade that's trading around a dollar fifty, try entering the order around one forty-nine, or one fifty-one.

Likewise, if you see a trade that's trading around one fifty-one, or one forty-nine, try entering the trade at one fifty. Try using some of that round lot pricing, or round number pricing. It might help get the trade filled a little faster.

Again, this can work in both directions; you just have to kind of play with it. I always try to kind of stretch the market a little bit. Number five is, know your "Mark." Never enter a trade at the bid or the asking price.

Know where the last trade was executed. We have training on this here at Option Alpha. You can just search the bid/ask spread, or the mark. But basically, what you want to do is make sure that you're trading first in really liquid underlying, which we talk about here on track two, and in track one.

But first, make sure you're trading liquid underlying, but then number two is making sure you know where the last market price, or last price it was trading.

For example, if you're looking at a stock and the bid and the ask spread was one fifteen to one twenty, that means that the last price may have been one sixteen or one seventeen, somewhere in between the bid and the ask spread.

Just know where that mark is, it will help reduce some of the slippages that you might otherwise have missed, enter in some trades.

Number six is, stretch the Market. I always try to offer, either above or below, depending on which way we're trading, the market prices, to see if there are there are any takers. Again, you don't know if there's anybody out there that's looking for that position at a different price.

For example, if we're getting into, let's say, a trade where we're selling options and taking in credit, I might try to offer a couple of pennies, or couple dollars above, where the market is trading at the moment.

If, let's say we're selling a strangle, and the strangle is priced at a hundred dollars, I might try to get that strangle in for a hundred and five, or a hundred and four dollars.

I'm not going to stretch wild prices like I'm not going to try to get it filled at a hundred and fifty when it's trading at a hundred, right? It's not going to happen.

But I will try to stretch just a little bit just to get maybe a couple of dollars out the market, see if there are any takers. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I always try to stretch.

That also means if we're going to buy options, so let's say we're going to buy a debit spread and it's trading at fifty dollars, I might try to buy that debit spread for forty-eight dollars, or for forty-seven dollars.

I'll try to stretch a little bit, try to offer a little bit less than what the market is. Maybe there's somebody who is willing to come down and meet me at that price and get the trade filled.

Number seven is, adjust slowly. It is okay to adjust prices to fill. I get this question a lot with our pro and elite members when people get started they say, "Well, I placed the order, and I don't know if it's okay to adjust or move my prices."

Yes, it's always okay to adjust your prices to fill. You just have to do it slowly and don't rush. Remember, order entry is real, really important. You want to make sure you're getting fair pricing, as we talked about before.

You want to make sure that you're getting decent pricing on spreads that correlate with the risk in the trade. Don't rush this process.

Usually what I do is I wait anywhere between ten and fifteen minutes. It's not a hard rule where I've got a timer for fifteen minutes. But I'll place an order, I'll let the market trade around that order.

I'll come back, and if it hasn't filled after fifteen minutes, I'll reassess the trade. Did the market move higher? Do I need to move my prices? Do I need to adjust my strike prices to maintain that probability of success that we are targeting?

I think you have to do it on a slow basis. If the market does move, and it can move pretty fast as we all know, then we want to make sure that you're still calculating everything out appropriately so that you know what exactly we're getting into. Again, don't rush, but it is okay to adjust, just do it slowly.

Number eight follows the volume. See where the volume is today, and look to possibly adjust your strike prices.

You know, I think this is a really key concept, but if you trade after the market opens, and you let some of the volumes come in, and let the market kind of work out for a little bit in the morning, and usually I do my trading somewhere around thirty minutes after the market opens.

I don't like to do a lot of trading when the market opens right away. Do I want to see where the volume is, where's the activity today?

If you look at a particular strike price, and you see that, let's say the one ten call options, have a couple of contracts that are traded, the one elevens have a couple, but then the one twelves have like five hundred contracts that were traded.

Well, that might be the place where people are focusing their attention, those one twelve call options. You might need to look at adjusting your strike prices. Maybe you were targeting the one tens or the one elevens.

Maybe you can take a little bit less money and target the one twelves, cause you might get filled quicker, and you might get filled at a better price, instead of waiting for somebody to fill out the one tens or the one elevens.

Always see where the volume is. You'll there are noticeable spikes in volume at particular strike prices. It's usually around, round or even lot strike prices. 85, 80, 75, et cetera. You'll never really see a lot of volume in those uneven strike prices, typically, across the board.

There may be some outliers there, but usually, if you have strike prices of a dollar wide, you'll see most of the volume at those five dollar increments, versus that dollar and a half increments, okay? That's another quick tip for how you can orders filled a little bit faster.

As always, hope you guys enjoyed these videos. If you have any comments or questions, please ask them right below. If you love this video, please share it online. Help spread the word about what we're trying to do here at Option Alpha. Until next time, happy trading.

The transcript is not available yet. Please check back soon.

Options
Bid-Ask Spread

No-code, fully automated trading for stocks and options.

HomeAboutLegalStatusContact
©2022 Option Alpha. All Rights Reserved. Patent Pending USSN 63/118,547