Reuse Longs: Reusing existing Long Contracts (recycling Longs)

1. Purpose and Background

The Reuse Longs feature enables the reuse of existing Long contracts from previous trades to avoid unnecessary new openings and reduce trading costs (also known as "recycling Longs").
Particularly with spread strategies, unused Long positions often remain after a Stop or Exit of the Short leg. These can be automatically used for new trades if they fall within the configured spread width.

The goal is to save costs for new Longs as well as their trading fees.

2. How It Works

When Reuse Longs is enabled, OptionsApp checks with each new trade opening whether an existing Long contract can be used.
The requirement for this is that:

• the long contract comes from a trade in the same account that has already been stopped or closed,
• the associated Short leg has been closed or stopped out,
• the strike lies within the spread width configured in the trade template,
• and option type, expiration, ratio and quantity match.

Only in this case will the existing Long be reused. If the Long falls outside the configured spread width, the app automatically opens a new Long according to Trade Template settings.

3. Example

An example illustrates the logic:

• Existing Trade:
  Short Put at 6600, Long Put at 6500 (spread width = 100 points)
  > Short Put gets stopped out, Long Put at 6500 remains.
• New Trade:
  Short Put at 6550, Long Put would be at 6450 according to configuration.
  Since the existing Long at 6500 is higher than 6450 (within the spread width of 100 points), it is automatically reused.

This means no new Long is opened, but the existing one is used instead.
The same logic applies analogously for Call spreads, just mirrored on the upside.

4. Effects on the New Trade

The long position taken over becomes a full part of the new trade, including its close orders. Its strike may differ from the definition in the trade template.

Spread width, maximum loss and margin requirement of the new trade may therefore differ from the trade template. In the portfolio at the broker, individual positions are then harder to assign to the individual trade.

Every reuse is documented in the trade log, together with the specification in the trade template and the contract actually used.

5. Activation

The Reuse Longs feature can be enabled in the app settings:

1. Open Settings > Trading in OptionsApp.
2. Set the parameter Reuse Long Position to Yes.
3. Save changes (Save button).

After activation, OptionsApp applies this logic to all future trade openings. From version 2.0 on, the setting alone is not sufficient: reuse must additionally be approved in the user portal.

6. Approval Required

From version 2.0 on, the reuse of existing long positions requires an approval in the user portal. It is listed there in the Approvals area under "Reuse of existing long positions".

Without this approval, OptionsApp opens new long positions for every trade and does not reuse any existing ones.

The approval permits reuse in principle only. Whether OptionsApp actually uses it is enabled or disabled independently of that, in the settings.

A trade is governed by the state of the approvals at the time it was opened. An approval granted or withdrawn later does not affect running trades.

The confirmation text in the approval dialog reads:

I authorize OptionsApp to reuse existing long positions from earlier trades. I am aware that the contract used, the spread width, the maximum loss and the margin requirement may therefore differ from my trade template.

Further details: Approvals in the User Portal.