Options Automation Lab
thinkorswim paperMoney Auto-Trade Flow
Design the full paper-trading workflow before connecting any broker: signal validation, contract filters, risk gates, staged order tickets, paperMoney confirmation, monitoring, and exit automation.
Execution Boundary
This page does not submit orders, store broker credentials, or bypass thinkorswim confirmation. It creates the operating model for paper execution and keeps live order routing out of scope until the risk controls are proven.
Paper-First
Use paperMoney to validate logic, fills, exits, and logging before live routing.
Defined Risk
Every order passes max-loss, quantity, daily-loss, and event-risk checks.
Audit Ready
Every signal, quote snapshot, decision, order state, and exit reason is logged.
Paper Trade Plan
Risk Gate
Risk per trade
Keep paper rules identical to the future live rule set.
Defined max loss
Auto-trade flow should reject undefined or uncapped loss.
Contract cap
Quantity stays bounded while testing fills and exits.
Submission boundary
No unattended live order path is enabled from this page.
Generated Paper Ticket
Use this as the normalized order ticket before staging anything in thinkorswim paperMoney.
Symbol: SPY Strategy: Bull Put Credit Spread Bias: Bullish to neutral Order: SELL put spread for a net credit Order type: LIMIT, DAY, single ticket for all legs Entry logic: start near mid price, reprice slowly, cancel if unfilled after 10 minutes Max trade risk: $1,000 Max contracts: 3 Execution mode: Manual thinkorswim paperMoney confirmation Exit rules: Buy back at 50% of max profit, stop near 2x credit, close by 7 DTE.
Execution Workflow
Signal
Strategy engine creates a setup only after trend, volatility, and event filters agree.
Contract Filter
Rejects wide markets, thin open interest, earnings risk, and expirations outside the rule set.
Risk Gate
Checks max loss, daily loss, position count, strategy permissions, and kill-switch state.
Ticket Builder
Creates a single limit order ticket with strikes, DTE, quantity, and repricing rules.
PaperMoney Handoff
Routes to manual paperMoney confirmation or a dry-run broker adapter when API access exists.
Monitor
Polls open orders, fills, mark price, Greeks, P/L, and expiration risk.
Exit
Submits or prepares the closing order when profit target, stop, time stop, or event stop triggers.
Order State Machine
Kill Switches
Broker Integration Notes
Do not screen scrape
Automated UI control is brittle and can create unintended orders. Keep paperMoney confirmation manual unless a supported broker API path is available.
Keep adapters isolated
Use a PaperBroker interface first, then a Schwab adapter later. Strategy logic should never call a broker directly.
Require dry-run parity
The dry-run payload, paper ticket, and future live payload should be structurally identical except for the submission target.
Disclaimer: For education and paper-trading workflow design only. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. This tool does not provide financial advice or submit broker orders.