Your signals say buy or sell. The bot picks the contract: a call or a put at the delta you want, inside your expiry window and under your cost cap, then manages it in premium. Six steps, on a paper account first, and no code.
Before you start
Options run on the same connection as futures: the TraderFrame Bridge next to IB Gateway on your computer. If your IBKR account is already connected, you are most of the way there.
Through the Bridge and IB Gateway. Not connected yet? Do steps 1 to 4 of the futures guide first, then come back.
Open the futures guideOptions need it. The Interactive Brokers card on Brokers shows your version, and an Update link when there is a newer one.
Options must be allowed on your IBKR account, in Client Portal under trading permissions.
Paper trades on delayed quotes. A live account needs a US options (OPRA) subscription in IBKR.
What happens to every signal
The alert never names a strike or an expiry. The bot reads the chain when the signal arrives and picks one contract by your rule. If a check fails, nothing is bought and the Signals tab says why.
Step by step
Do the steps in order. Each one ends with something you can see, so you know it worked before you move on.
One bot trades options on one underlying. Make another bot for QQQ or a single stock.
A buy signal buys a call and a sell signal buys a put. The bot only ever buys, so the most a trade can lose is its premium.
A filter with no reading refuses the trade: missing IV history or an unknown earnings date never slips through.
Every signal and its outcome, bought or refused with the reason, is on the Signals tab.
The message only says buy or sell. The contract, size and exits come from the bot.
The alert names the underlying, the same symbol as your chart. Strike, expiry and size always come from the bot, never from the alert.
Market data
The bot reads deltas, bid and ask from the chain when a signal arrives. On a live account those have to be real-time, so live entries wait for a US options (OPRA) subscription. Paper trades on delayed quotes.
Keeping it running
Options bots buy between 09:30 and 16:00 Eastern. An alert outside those hours is refused and written to the Signals tab; the next one inside the session trades.
A contract still open that many days before its expiry is sold at 15:45 New York. It keeps a bot from holding into the last days, when premium drains fastest.
IB Gateway asks you to log in again once a day, and to re-authenticate fully once a week. Until you do, the account reads Needs your login and your bots pause. Log in and the Bridge reconnects on its own.
Options need Bridge 1.3.8 or newer. When a newer one is out, the account card shows an Update link: download again and replace the app. Your token and settings stay.
Troubleshooting
Every refusal and skip is written to the bot's Signals tab with its reason, so you can see why a signal did not trade.
FAQ
No. Every signal buys one kind of contract: a call on buy, a put on sell. The most a trade can lose is the premium you paid.
It takes the nearest expiry inside your window, then the strike whose delta is closest to your target and not under your floor. Spread and cost are checked before anything is bought.
You choose. Close only sells the open contract. Close and reverse sells it and buys the other side, a put after a call or a call after a put.
The time exit sells an open contract that many days before expiry, at 15:45 New York. Set it so the bot never holds into the last days.
Most IBKR accounts start with delayed data. Paper trades on it anyway. A live account needs a US options (OPRA) subscription before it can enter.
Yes. It is one connection per IBKR account, set up in the futures guide. Options only need the Bridge to be 1.3.8 or newer.
Switching to live is the same bot on your live IBKR account, with a US options (OPRA) subscription. Nothing else changes.
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