Stock Options Trading

TradersPost Automated Options Trading Setup

Supported Brokers

• TradeStation
• Alpaca
• E*Trade
• Tastytrade
• Tradier

Symbol Format

This section outlines the different formats TradersPost supports for representing options contracts. Users are not required to use a specific format based on their connected broker. TradersPost parses and normalizes multiple formats internally and automatically converts them to the correct format required by each broker when submitting orders.

Example Contract

• Underlying: SPY
• Contract Type: Call
• Strike Price: $582.50
• Expiration Date: May 20, 2025

Note: This specific contract is used for demonstration purposes only. A $582.50 strike price for SPY may not exist. The decimal is included to illustrate how different formats handle precision.

Format Comparison

Format Details

Date Formatting

• YMD = YYMMDD (e.g. May 20, 2025 → 250520)
• MDY = MMDDYY (e.g. May 20, 2025 → 052025)

Strike Formatting

• Decimal Format: Most formats use a decimal representation of the strike. Trailing zeroes are optional (582.5 or 582).
• Scaled Integer Format (Tradier): Strike is padded and scaled to four decimal places (e.g., 582.5 → 00582500).

Call/Put Indicator

• Some formats include an explicit indicator for option type:
  • C = Call
  • P = Put

TradersPost Behavior

• Users can input any of the supported formats regardless of broker.
• TradersPost will parse, validate, and normalize the input.
• When sending the order to the broker, TradersPost will format the symbol according to the broker’s specific requirements.

Examples of accepted user input:

• SPY 250520582.5
• SPY_052025582.5
• SPY250520C582.5
• SPY250520582.5
• SPY250520C00582500

Supported Option Types

When setting up a strategy within TradersPost you will have the ability to choose what kind of option to buy or sell when signals are received.

• Both — Buy long calls on action=buy and buy long puts on action=sell.
• Calls — Buy long calls on action=buy and sell short calls on action=sell.
• Puts — By default (Invert puts unchecked), buy long puts on action=buy and sell short puts on action=sell.

Option Chain Scanning

TradersPost offers a variety of different methods for scanning the option chain automatically to find contracts that fit your criteria.

In this example we have configured our strategy subscription to do the following:

• Asset class = Stock Options will buy and sell options contracts.
• Option Type = Both will buy calls when bullish and buy puts when bearish.
• Intrinsic value = In The Money will filter out any Out Of The money contracts.
• Expiration = +3 months will filter out any contracts that expire before 3 months out. If you want to trade same day expiration (0DTE) contracts, then you can enter 0 days in the expiration field or leave the field blank and TradersPost will select the first expiration date returned by the broker. You can enter an expiration in the strategy subscription settings, click save, then you can see the example entry order and the contract that was selected at the top right of the page.
• Strike Count limits how many strikes to analyze per expiration date when we are scanning the option chain. This does not effect which strike gets selected, it just reduces the number of strikes that will be returned from the broker API for each expiration date. As such, there is no optimal value for this field that will change which strike is selected.
• Strikes Away with a value of 3 will select the 3rd contract away from At The Money.

You are able to control the option chain scanning functionality from webhooks. Here is an example:

{
    "ticker": "AAPL",
    "action": "buy",
    "expiration": "+6 months",
    "instrinsicValue": "itm",
    "optionType": "both",
    "strikesAway": 3
}

Or send the exact contract you want to trade instead of using the option chain scanning functionality:

{
    "ticker": "AAPL",
    "action": "buy",
    "expiration": "2023-01-20",
    "optionType": "call",
    "strikePrice": 325
}

Or send the full option contract symbol in the ticker parameter:

{
    "ticker": "AAPL 230120C325",
    "action": "buy"
}

Expiration Series Filters

When you configure option chain scanning (in subscription settings or the webhook signal), you can narrow which expirations are considered by series type. TradersPost uses the same filter names on every supported broker:

0DTE and LEAPS can overlap the other filters. For example, a contract can be both 0DTE and Daily.

You can combine a series filter with a relative Expiration window (for example +3 months) so TradersPost only considers dates that match both.

Stock And ETF Options Use One Symbol Root

Unlike index options, stock and ETF options (for example SPY, QQQ, IWM, AAPL, TSLA) normally use a single option root matching the underlying ticker. Choosing Weekly or Monthly changes which calendar dates are eligible — not which root symbol is queried.

What To Expect From Each Filter

• Weekly — Near-term Friday expirations outside the standard monthly cycle. Liquid names such as SPY and QQQ usually have several of these listed.
• Monthly — The regular monthly expirations further out on the cycle.
• Daily — Monday–Thursday short-dated listings. Highly liquid underlyings often have these; many individual stocks do not. An empty Daily list (for example on a less actively listed name) means no matching dates, not a broken connection.
• End of Month / Quarterly — Month-end and quarter-end style expirations when the broker lists them. Some stocks have few or none under Quarterly.
• 0DTE — Only today’s expiration, when one exists.
• LEAPS — Longer-dated contracts about a year or more out.

Broker Differences

For stock and ETF options, supported brokers generally agree on which dates fall under each filter. Small differences can still appear when a broker lists an extra short-dated expiration or classifies a date differently. TradersPost keeps the meaning of each filter consistent; it does not force every broker’s date list to be identical.

For cash-settled index underlyings such as SPX — where monthly and weekly-style contracts can use different roots on the same Friday — see Index Options Trading.

Webhook Signals

It's easy to send signals to TradersPost using Webhooks from platforms like TradingView or TrendSpider. You just need to send JSON like the following to the webhook URL you create within TradersPost.

Inside of TradersPost when setting up a strategy you can configure what kind of option contracts to buy when you receive a signal. Here are the signals you can send and the resulting behavior.

Enter Bullish

The buy action is a bullish signal. When TradersPost receives a buy signal, TradersPost will Buy To Close or Sell To Close any bearish position for the ticker and enter bullish with Buy To Open long calls.

{
    "ticker": "SQ",
    "action": "buy"
}

Exit Bullish

The exit action will exit any open position. So for example if you have a long call position open, then TradersPost will Sell to Close those calls.

{
    "ticker": "SQ",
    "action": "exit"
}

Enter Bearish

The sell action is a bearish signal. When TradersPost receives a sell signal, TradersPost will Sell To Close or Buy To Close any bullish position for the ticker and enter bearish with Buy To Open long puts.

{
    "ticker": "SQ",
    "action": "sell"
}

Exit Bearish

The exit action will exit any open position. So if you have a long puts position open, then TradersPost will Sell to Close those puts.

{
    "ticker": "SQ",
    "action": "exit"
}

Full Signal Example

You can optionally include a quantity in the signal that can then be used in the calculated orders that we send to your broker. Here is a full example signal.

{
    "ticker": "SQ",
    "action": "buy",
    "quantity": 5
}

If you configure your strategy subscription to use limit orders and to use the signal quantity, then you will get a Buy To Open Limit order for 5 contracts. If you don’t select entry market or exit market, then we will submit a limit order with the midpoint price.