Trade Rules — Hybrid Trades (BETA)
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Requires: Regular edition or above (not available in the Free edition)
Most trades never need this guide. If your trade is a single structure (an iron condor, a butterfly, a credit spread) apply its template as described in the Beginner's Guide and stop there. Read on only if one trade holds several combos at once, for example a put broken-wing butterfly plus a double diagonal under one trade number, and you want each part to follow its own plan.
Important: Trade Rules is new (BETA). Hybrid handling is the newest part of it. SOAP2 only reports and recommends, and nothing here changes an order.
1. The Idea: One Leg Group per Combo
A leg group is a subset of the trade's legs with its own rules. A group's rules see only that group's legs, so the butterfly can have its own time exit while the diagonal has another.
The trade's own rules (the Trade node in the tree on the left of the editor) keep covering the whole trade. Group rules are never copied up to the trade, because the same breach would fire twice and be measured on the wrong scope.
Groups appear in the editor's tree. Select one to edit its rules.
2. Splitting a Hybrid, One Combo at a Time
- Open the trade's rules (Alt+X) and press Templates ▸ Suggested for this trade. It offers one Group ... and apply ... line per combo it found. Click the first (say the butterfly). A leg group is created with that template's rules. The trade's own rules are untouched.
- Press Templates ▸ Suggested for this trade again. Legs already in a group are no longer looked at, so the rest is offered as Group the remaining legs: Double diagonal ... and apply 'Calendar / diagonal'. Click it for the second combo. If what is left is not a standard shape, you can still group it without a template.
- Press Check rules (section 3).
- Optionally select All rules (combined) to see everything together (section 4).
- Press Check rules ▸ Mark this combination as validated (section 5), then Save.
Once any group exists, a template found this way always goes on a new group, never on the trade as a whole, because trade-level rules would also cover the combos that already have their own.
Everything is a draft until you press Save, and Undo (Ctrl+Z) walks back through every step since the last save.
How SOAP2 recognises combos
When the trade log shows the legs were bought at different times (within a few seconds counts as one combo), each part is offered as its own group. Besides the single-expiry shapes, it knows the double diagonal (a put diagonal and a call diagonal on the same two expiries) and the double calendar; both use the Calendar / diagonal template. A shape it recognises but has no template for (a straddle, say) is named and can still be grouped. Anything it is not sure of is not guessed.
Splitting a recognised combo further
- Double diagonal: Templates ▸ Suggested for this trade ▸ Group as a Put diagonal and a Call diagonal makes two groups, one per side, each with the template's rules.
- Butterfly (straight or broken-wing): Templates ▸ Suggested for this trade ▸ Group as a credit spread and a debit spread makes two groups that share the butterfly's body, each with the template of its shape (for example Put credit spread and Put debit spread), in one undoable step.
3. Check Rules
Check rules reads the trade's rules together with those of every group and lists what looks wrong. It never changes anything by itself.
| Finding | Meaning | What you can do |
|---|
| Repeats an earlier rule | A rule says exactly what an earlier one already says | Click it to remove it, or Remove all N duplicate rules (one undo step). This is the only auto-fix. Disabled copies are left alone |
| Two actions at one level | The same measurement at the same level asks for, say, Alert and Close | Click to jump there and pick one |
| Ladder back to front | The first level to breach carries a harsher action than a later one (for example below 21 = Close but below 7 = Alert) | Click to jump there and reorder |
| Repeats a trade-level rule | A group rule equals one on the trade, so one breach fires both | Decide whether you meant it; delete one if not |
| Leg in several groups | Its risk would be counted twice | Fix it in Leg groups... |
| Group leg no longer open / open legs in no group / group without rules | The grouping no longer matches the position, or a combo has no rules yet | Review the group, group the remaining legs, or apply a template |
4. The Combined View
The rules of a hybrid trade live on its groups, so the Trade node can be empty while the dashboard lists real rules. All rules (combined), the last item under Trade in the tree, lists the trade's rules and every group's together, each row marked [Trade] or [Group name], with current values.
It is read-only: edit a rule on its own group. When a trade has no rules of its own but its groups do, the editor opens on this view.
5. Validate Rules
Check rules ▸ Mark this combination as validated is your sign-off on the combination. It runs Check rules first: with no findings it validates at once; with findings it lists them and asks whether to validate anyway (an overlap can be intentional). The button then reads Rules validated, and Save keeps it.
Any later change to a rule's substance or to the groups (a level, an action, enabling or disabling, a leg) cancels the validation. Renaming a rule or editing its note does not.
Validation is advice, not a gate: the dashboard monitors and alerts on the rules whether or not they are validated. (The dashboard does not show the validated state yet.)
6. Leg Groups Dialog
For full control press More ▾ ▸ Leg groups....
- The list on the left starts with the Full basket (every leg), followed by the groups. Select the Full basket to give legs to a group; select a group to see only its legs.
- Each open option leg has a Group drop-down. Choosing a group puts the whole leg in it, taking it out of any other. Legs left as (ungrouped) are covered by the trade-level rules only. The stock or futures leg is never grouped.
- Add group, Rename and Delete work on the selected group. For Rename, select the group, press Rename once to put its name in the Name box, edit it, and press Rename again. Deleting a group that has rules asks first, and its legs become ungrouped.
- Propose groups suggests one group per expiry, or a puts group and a calls group, using only legs not already in a group. Nothing is created until you say yes, and existing groups are never changed.
- Per unit is how many contracts of that leg make up one unit of the group (a butterfly's body is 2). It is filled in for you and can be typed over. It keeps a "per unit" rule right after you reduce the position.
- Split group replaces the selected group by smaller ones: By side, By expiry, or Butterfly: credit and debit spread. Splitting by side or expiry copies the group's rules to each piece (edit them afterwards). Splitting a butterfly copies none, because a butterfly's rules do not fit a spread; apply a template to each piece.
Sharing a leg between groups
A leg can belong to several groups as long as the shares add up to 100% at most. Use the Share % column:
- In a group's list, type the percentage of the leg that group holds. 0 removes the leg from the group.
- In the Full basket the column shows the total held by all groups, and a leg split between groups reads Credit 50% + Debit 50%.
- Add leg (select a group first) adds a leg with the part of it no other group holds. The usual order is: lower the share in one group, then Add leg in the other.
- More than 100% in total is refused. Rules read quantity × share, so a split follows later changes of the position.
7. What a Group's Rules Can and Cannot See
For a group, time, strikes, delta, Greeks and unrealized P&L are available.
- A group's Greeks are n/a if any of its open legs has no implied volatility yet, because a partial sum would understate the exposure. Group gamma, vega and theta are model estimates that will be close to, not identical with, the Options Analysis figures.
- Margin, breakevens and realized P&L are n/a for a group.
- A group whose leg has since been closed or rolled is marked (review) in the tree and shows n/a with review the group, instead of quietly re-fitting itself. Open Leg groups... and set that leg to (ungrouped) or assign the new one.
8. Good Habits for Hybrids
- Group one combo at a time with Templates ▸ Suggested for this trade, then Check rules, then mark the combination validated. It is quicker than building groups by hand.
- Keep a few rules at trade level for what applies to the whole position (a time exit on the nearest expiry, a stop on total P&L) and the combo-specific ones on the groups.
- If Check rules reports a trade-level repeat, decide which scope you meant and delete the other.
- Re-run Check rules after you roll or close a leg: groups no longer matching the position are flagged for review.
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