Trade Disc: Strategy Builder

The Strategy Builder tab is a planning screen. You put a multi-leg option position together, see what it would make and lose at any index price and on any date, and only then decide whether to place it.

Nothing here is saved. There is no strategy list and no schedule — the only thing that leaves this page is an order. Close Trade Disc and the work is gone.

It reads in three columns: Quick setups on the left fills the legs in for you; Legs in the middle is the position itself; on the right, Metrics and Analysis show the same position as money figures, a payoff graph, a per-leg P&L and the greeks, with the Target and IV changes controls beneath them.

Every position is a list of legs, and each line is one contract.

• B/S — BUY or SELL. Click it to flip that leg to the other side.
• Expiry — any listed expiry, per leg. Two different expiries on two legs is a calendar spread, and that is allowed.
• Strike — the − and + beside it walk the strikes the exchange actually lists, one rung at a time.
• CE/PE — a call or a put. Click it to switch.
• Lots — lots, not quantity. One NIFTY lot is 65.
• Price — the live price of that contract, filled in for you. Type over it to test a different fill; LTP puts the live one back.
• Product, Order, SL and Target — the same terms a leg carries in Entries, so a leg placed from here arrives with its stop and target already set.
• ✕ at the start of a row removes that leg. + Add leg adds one at the money. Clear empties the table. The name of the structure — Bull Call Spread, Short Straddle — appears in the panel's title row as soon as your legs make one.

Quick setups is a shelf of 37 standard option structures on five tabs: Bullish, Bearish, Neutral, High Volatility and Low Volatility. Each card shows the structure's payoff shape and its name; pick one and the Legs table is filled in at the strikes nearest today's market.

The two volatility tabs are split again under Bullish, Bearish and Neutral, because expecting a big move is only half a view. A Long Straddle sits under Neutral because it does not mind the direction; a Strap sits under Bullish because it leans up.

These are starting layouts, not trade recommendations. Bluechip Algos does not tell anybody what to trade. A Short Straddle card is the textbook shape of a short straddle, not a view that one is a good idea today. Check every leg after you pick it — the strikes and the prices are yours to change.

Hover over a card to read the structure in words. A calendar or a diagonal needs a later expiry as well, and the hover says so.

The Metrics strip answers the money question for the position as it stands.

• MAX PROFIT and MAX LOSS — the best and worst this position can do at expiry. One of them may read Unlimited, and it means it: a sold call has no ceiling on its loss.
• BREAKEVEN — the index price or prices where you neither make nor lose. The Expiry / Target choice beside Breakevens decides whether that is measured at expiry or on the date set by the Days slider.
• REWARD / RISK — the two above as a ratio.
• NET DEBIT or NET CREDIT — what the position costs you, or pays you, to put on.
• POP — the chance of finishing in profit at expiry, worked out from the options' own volatility. It says nothing about how much, and it is a calculation, not a forecast.
• INTRINSIC and TIME VALUE — how much of the premium is real value today, and how much is only time that will decay away.
• FUNDS — the money available at your broker accounts, so you can see the position against what you actually have.

Analysis has three tabs. Payoff draws profit and loss down the side against the index price along the bottom — not time, which is what makes it different from every other chart in the app. One line is the position at expiry, the other on the date set by the Days slider. Rest the mouse anywhere on it to read the profit or loss at that index price.

P&L per leg lists each leg with its quantity, its entry, what it is worth at your target price, and at expiry, with the profit or loss each way. It is where you find out which leg is carrying the position and which one is only insurance.

Greeks shows each leg's IV, delta, gamma, theta and vega. Read the delta first: it says how much the position moves for a one-point move in the index, and its sign tells you which way you are really leaning.

Under Analysis are the controls that ask "what if". None of them changes your position — they change the question.

• Target price — drag it up to 10 percent either side of where the index is now, and every figure is worked out as if the index were there.
• Days — move the date forward, with that much time decay taken out. Set it to 3 and you see the position three days from now.
• IV change — raise or lower implied volatility by up to 10 points. If a small change moves the answer a long way, the position is really a volatility bet.
• Reset, in the IV changes panel, puts all three back where they were.

PLACE ORDER, in the Legs title row, sends every leg. Check the Forward Testing / Live switch at the top first; the broker accounts are the ones ticked in Config, the same as on the Dashboard.

The Dashboard's two rules apply: BUY legs go before SELL legs, so a spread is not refused for margin the bought leg was about to release, and each leg is tried once.

When it is done a message says Placed 2 leg(s). They appear on the dashboard like any other position. — and they do: every shift, quantity change and level on the Adjustments page works on them exactly as on anything else.

Worth knowing before you rely on it.

• It cannot tell you the margin this position will need — no broker offers that as a service we can call. It shows the funds you have; the requirement is your broker's to state.
• It cannot save anything. No drafts, no templates, no list of positions you were thinking about.
• It covers NIFTY, BANKNIFTY and SENSEX only. MCX commodities are traded from the Dashboard.
• It cannot tell you what to trade. The structures are shapes; the strikes, the prices and the decision are yours.
• Its prices are the market's last traded prices. A contract nobody has traded today has a stale price, and every figure on the screen is only as good as that.

The ones that come up.

• A Price box is empty. That contract has no traded price yet. Type a price in and every figure on the right is worked out again.
• MAX LOSS reads Unlimited. You have a sold call with nothing bought above it. That is arithmetic, not a warning — but read it twice.
• PLACE ORDER says Select at least one broker account first. You are in Live with nothing ticked in Config. Tick an account there and press PLACE ORDER again.
• A quick setup asks for a later expiry. Calendars and diagonals put one leg on the next expiry; pick an expiry that has one after it.