P&L Action: Early Exit

With the "Early Exit" function, you can automatically close a trade at a specific time before its actual expiration. This feature is especially useful if you don't want to hold certain strategies until expiration day, but instead want to exit in a controlled manner at an earlier point in time (for example, on the last trading day before market close).

Important: For active trades, it's not possible to set Early Exits retroactively.

1. Activation and reference to the Main Leg

The setting is located within the P&L Actions (Combo, Group, or individual Leg).

2. Configurable Fields

Once "Early Exit" is activated, the following input fields appear:

• DTE: Specifies how many days until expiration the trade should be closed. Example: If set to 0 DTE, the trade will be closed on the last day.
• Minutes: Defines at what time on that day the exit should occur.
• Time Reference: Here you select whether the minutes are measured "before market close" or "after market opening".
  • Example: 60 minutes before market close means at 3:00 PM US Eastern Time (market closes at 4:00 PM).
  • Example: 60 minutes after market open (starts at 9:30 AM) results in an exit at 10:30 AM.
• Order Type:
  • Market Order: The trade is closed immediately with a Market Order.
  • Limit Order: The app attempts to close the trade via Limit Order by starting the order at the mid-price and adjusting it 10 times. If the trade hasn't been closed by then, a Market Order is automatically executed.

3. Important: OptionsApp Must Be Active

OptionsApp must be active and properly connected to TWS at the scheduled Early Exit time. The Early Exit is monitored and triggered exclusively by OptionsApp. No automatic closure occurs if OptionsApp is not running or is disconnected at that time.

Especially for strategies like Calendar Spreads, where the short leg has a longer duration than the long leg, an unclosed trade can lead to increased risk. In such cases, it's crucial to configure the Early Exit so that sufficient time remains before market close. We explicitly recommend not setting it to just 1 or 2 minutes before market close. Technical issues or delays (for example with TWS or your broker) could prevent the trade from being executed in time.

4. Auto-Adjust DTE

The "Auto-Adjust DTE" option controls what the DTE number of the Early Exit refers to when the trade was opened with a different duration than the one requested in the template.

This deviation occurs when "Use exact DTE" is disabled in the Trade Template and there is no expiration for the requested duration: on weekends, on holidays and for products without daily expirations, such as stock options that only expire weekly on Fridays. The app then opens the next available expiration, so the contract runs longer than specified in the template.

More on this: Duration Accuracy (Use Exact DTE)

If "Use exact DTE" is enabled, no deviation occurs, because only a contract with exactly the defined duration is opened. "Auto-Adjust DTE" then has no effect.

Auto-Adjust disabled:
The DTE number you set counts unchanged against the contract that was actually opened. The exit therefore moves along with the expiration and shifts back by the same number of days as the expiration. If the Early Exit is set to 0 DTE, the trade is closed on the expiration day of the contract that was actually opened.

Auto-Adjust enabled:
The DTE number of the Early Exit is increased by the same number of days by which the expiration was shifted. The exit therefore stays on the calendar day that was intended when the template was created, counted from the opening day. Example: requested 4 DTE, opened 6 DTE, shift of 2 days. An Early Exit at 0 DTE thus becomes an Early Exit at 2 DTE.

For clarity: A higher DTE number means an earlier calendar day, because more days remain until expiration. The adjustment therefore moves the Early Exit forward, in the example by two days. The time span between opening and closing stays the one that was intended when the template was created.

CAUTION:
The same trade closes on different days with and without "Auto-Adjust DTE", in the example two days apart. Before using it, check which of the two behaviors you want, and after the trade has been opened, verify the closing time shown in the Dashboard.

5. Closing on Holidays and Weekends

If the calculated closing day falls on a day without trading, the closing is moved forward to the last trading day before it. This applies in both variants, with and without "Auto-Adjust DTE", and regardless of whether the deviation is caused by a holiday or by a weekend.

In this case the app deliberately closes too early rather than too late. A late closing would be the greater risk, because the position would then stay open over a period in which it can no longer be closed as planned.

Whether the exchange is open on a given day is only reliably available to the app about 5 days in advance. For longer durations, the closing time shown at first is therefore an estimate and can still shift once the trading hours of that day are known.

6. Examples for "Auto-Adjust DTE"

All examples refer to US trading and the "Eastern Time" time zone (regular trading hours from 9:30 AM).

7. Example: Early Exit at 3 DTE, 60 minutes before market close

In this example, the Early Exit is configured as follows:

• Early Exit activated: The function is active and will be executed when the defined conditions are met.
• 3 DTE: The trade should be closed three days before expiration day. What matters is the remaining duration of the Main Leg, i.e. the first leg in the template, for example a Short Put.
• 60 minutes before market close: The closure should occur 60 minutes before trading ends. For US markets, this typically means 3:00 PM US Eastern Time.
• Market Order: The trade is closed via Market Order. The order is placed immediately and will most likely be executed within a few seconds.
• Auto-Adjust DTE activated: If the Trade Template was configured without "Use exact DTE" and the actual duration deviates, the Early Exit moves forward by the same difference.

8. Notes and Risks

• OptionsApp must be running. The Early Exit is monitored exclusively by the app. If it is not running at the scheduled time or is disconnected from TWS, no closing takes place and the position stays open.
• The closing day can be moved forward. If it falls on a holiday or a weekend, the app closes on the last trading day before it. This is a day the user did not set in this way.
• For long durations, the date is an estimate at first, because trading hours are only fixed about five days in advance.
• Early Exit cannot be set retroactively for running trades. All settings must be in place before the opening.
• If the calculated exit time already lies in the past at opening, the app does not open the trade and reports "Time exit already in the past". A trade that is already running is closed immediately after the next market open. This situation can also be caused by the shift itself, see Example 2.
• We do not recommend a minute setting of less than 5 minutes before market close. Delays at TWS or the broker can prevent the closing from being executed in time.
• Responsibility of the user. The combination of duration, "Use exact DTE" and "Auto-Adjust DTE" determines the closing time. Which combination suits your own strategy, and whether the closing time shown in the Dashboard matches your expectation, is for the user to check.