TradeMate

The option chain is where you trade. It shows one index and one expiry, both picked from the tile at the top left. Each row shows the call on the left, the strike in the middle and the put on the right. A Combined band on the right shows both legs of the row together.

It has three modes:

• ±ATM sets how many strikes show above and below the ATM row, from 0 to 200. The default is 10 each side.
• The chain does not re-centre by itself, so rows never jump under your mouse. Press ATM ⟳ to bring the ladder back to the live ATM.
• The ATM row is highlighted and in-the-money cells are shaded.
• In Straddle mode, thin Spot and Syn Fut lines show where the live spot and the synthetic future sit between two strikes.
• A small green or red pill next to a strike shows your open quantity there.
• The chain names the index and expiry its rows belong to, above the strike column. It changes only when the new rows arrive, so it always describes the prices you are looking at.
• While you are switching to another index or expiry, a LOADING strip says which one is on its way, the rows you can still see are dimmed, and the order buttons are off until the new ones land.
• Prices update live. If the feed drops, a banner says the values may be old until it reconnects.

Columns. LTP and Strike always show. You can show or hide Buy, Sell, PNL, Exit, Move, Qty and Delta for each leg, and Buy, Sell, LTP, Exit, Net Qty, PNL and Qty for the combined pair. A call column always shows with its put partner.

Every row has its own buttons.

• B and S on a call or put buy or sell that contract.
• B and S in the Combined band buy or sell both legs of the row together. That is a straddle, a strangle or your custom pair in one click.
• EXIT closes your whole open position in that contract. Combined EXIT closes both legs.

Quantity is in units and must be a whole number of lots. The toolbar Qty sets the default for each index. You can change the quantity on any single row. A value that is not a lot multiple, or is above your Max qty / order, turns red and blocks that button.

Product and price come from Settings. Each index has its own product (MIS or NRML) and its own limit-price rules.

Buying against a short. If you buy a contract you are short in, the buy closes that quantity first. If that position has a stop loss resting at your broker, TradeMate changes the stop order into the exit instead of placing a second order.

Orders go out as soon as you click. There is no extra confirmation step on chain orders.

Tick Hedge in the chain toolbar and set a distance, from 1 to 99 strikes. The default is 5.

Now every sell does two things, in this order:

1. It buys the same type of option, that many strikes further out of the money, for the same quantity.
2. Then it sells the contract you clicked.

The Sell buttons change to S+B so you can see Hedge is on. A combined sell hedges both legs.

TradeMate then keeps the pair together:

• Adding to a hedged short buys more hedge first. If the sell then fails, the extra hedge is undone.
• Exiting the short also exits its hedge in the same proportion.
• The hedge quantity is kept equal to the short quantity.
• A hedge leg cannot be moved on its own. Move the short instead.

The Move column in the chain has two buttons on each side.

• 1 moves all of your other short positions on that side to this row's strike.
• 1/2 moves half of each of them.

"That side" means the same option type (CE or PE), index, product and expiry. Each position is closed and opened again at the new strike, one at a time. Large quantities are split into slices that fit the exchange limit.

Move works on short positions only. If there is nothing to move, you see No other sell positions to move.

You can work the chain from the keyboard.

• Arrow keys move between cells.
• Enter on a Qty cell confirms the quantity.

With KeyBoard Order ticked, keys can also place orders:

KeyBoard Order is off to begin with. Turning it on asks you to confirm. Holding a key down does not repeat the order.

Your positions sit under the chain in three books: Sell positions, Buy positions and Closed positions. They scroll together. Each book folds away with a click on its header.

• The Sell and Buy headers show the count and the CE, PE and net quantity.
• The MTM chip shows the live mark-to-market of every position.
• Columns shows or hides columns. Risk and action columns can be pinned to the right edge so they stay in view.
• Each column header has a filter list, like a spreadsheet. With a filter on, Filter MTM shows the MTM of just the rows you can see.
• Group puts rows together by Index, Expiry, Strike or CE/PE, in any mix. Each group shows its count and net quantity.
• The download icon saves the positions as a CSV file.

Pick a Size, then press Exit or Add. The size works for both.

It acts on the rows you have ticked. With nothing ticked, it acts on all open positions.

• A share is rounded to whole lots. A leg where the share is less than one lot is skipped.
• Exit never goes above the open quantity. Add never goes above your Max qty / order.

The Quick exit buttons, Exit 25%, Exit 50%, Exit 75% and Exit 100%, do the same in one press. Each asks you to confirm first, unless you have turned that off.

Cancel All cancels every open order at your broker.

Each position row has buttons to roll it. A roll exits the leg and opens the same side at a new strike.

Each button shows the strike it will move to and that strike's price. You choose how much to roll with the row's quantity box or with 1/4, 1/2 and 1. An armed stop loss moves with the leg to the new contract.

Rows also have Exit and Add buttons that work the same way.

Each Quick exit button has a clock. Set a time and TradeMate exits that share of your positions when the time comes.

• Use 24-hour time, for example 15:10:00. It must be later today.
• You can have one schedule for each share: 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%.
• It exits the rows you had ticked when you set it. With none ticked, it exits all positions.
• The schedule runs in TradeMate's background service, so it fires even if you are on another screen.
• A schedule whose time passed while TradeMate was closed is dropped, not fired later.
• Cancel All also clears every timed exit.

Your timed exits appear in the Active Rules list with their time.

Turn on SL or TGT in the positions toolbar to set a stop loss or a target for each position.

The settings bar holds your defaults:

On hit decides what happens. Exit closes the chosen quantity. Add adds to it. The Away and Close choices roll the leg one, two or three strikes.

Each row has its own SL and TGT cell. You can tick it, edit its price, and choose its own quantity and action. A row can also use a Custom Qty.

At broker. With At broker on, the stop loss rests as a real stop order with your broker. It then still works if TradeMate is closed. The stop order is a stop-limit (SL) order, priced from your stop-loss order settings. With At broker off, TradeMate watches the price itself, ten times a second, and exits when the level is hit. Targets always run inside TradeMate.

Auto arm is for the current session only. It is always off when TradeMate starts.

A trailing stop moves your stop loss as the price moves in your favour. It never moves against you.

• every X — how far the price must move before the stop moves. The default is 10.
• move SL Y — how far the stop moves each time. The default is 5.
• Both are in Pts or %.
• At broker — when on, each step also changes the stop order resting at your broker.
• Auto arm — trails new positions by itself. It needs the stop loss Auto arm on as well.

Each row has its own T SL tick and X and Y values.

The Risk tab protects your whole book at once. It watches your total MTM across every open position and every index.

Each rule has two plain menus:

• Action — what to do: Exit all positions, Add to all positions, Exit buy positions, Exit sell positions, Exit loss-making positions or Exit profit-making positions.
• Qty — how much: Full, 75%, 67%, 50%, 33% or 25%.

You fill in the level, choose the action and quantity, and press Add. The rule is then armed. It is listed under Active Rules in plain words, for example When MTM falls to -5000: exit 50% of all positions. Change it and press Update, or remove it with the bin.

• Trail SL moves the stop loss up as MTM rises. Set every and move SL. For example, every 1000 of MTM gained moves the stop up by 500.
• Stop loss and target are a pair. When one fires, both are removed.
• If MTM has already reached your level, TradeMate asks before it acts.
• The same tab shows your margin from your broker: total, used and available.
• TradeMate checks these rules twice a second. They run inside TradeMate, not at your broker.

The ATM tab of the Rules panel watches the ATM straddle premium: the call and the put at the ATM strike added together.

Each rule has the same Action menu (Exit all positions or Add to all positions) and Qty menu (Full down to 25%). Fill in the level and press Add. The rule is listed under Active Rules.

• Trail SL moves the stop loss down as the premium falls.
• Stop loss and target are a pair. When one fires, both are removed.
• The rule belongs to the index and expiry that were selected when you added it. It watches that straddle and acts on that expiry's positions.
• How ATM is found is your choice in Settings: spot, index future or synthetic future.

A rolling rule adjusts your legs when the index moves out of a band. It belongs to the index and expiry that were selected when you added it.

When you add the rule, it notes the current price as its reference. You set an Upper and a Lower level, either as points from the reference (Pts) or as prices (Manual). The reference, in From, is Spot or Synthetic. Each card says in one plain sentence what the rule will do with the settings you have chosen.

After a roll, the rule sets itself again around the new price. All can be narrowed to one index, to CE or PE legs, and to buy or sell positions.

The rule removes itself when its legs are closed. It does not act while the market is closed.

Price rules adjust your short legs when a premium crosses a level. You can have one of each type per index, and each one belongs to the expiry that was selected when you added it.

Price Check CE and Price Check PE watch a short call or put.

• When its premium reaches Adjust at, the leg is moved: bought back, then sold at a new strike.
• New leg picks the new strike: Premium at or below a value, Below the adjust level, or Move away N strikes.
• After ticks waits for the premium to stay above the level for that many ticks.
• Auto sets Adjust at for you: your highest short entry price plus an offset. It is worked out again after each move.

Price Difference watches a short call and a short put together. When the gap between their premiums reaches Adjust at gap, the cheaper side is moved closer.

Each card says in one plain sentence what the rule will do.

Adjustments counts the moves against a maximum. The default maximum is 10, shared by the price rules on one index. At the maximum the rule stops and shows Max Adj Done. You can change the maximum at any time during the day. The count starts again from zero when you restart TradeMate.

Entry and exit orders are always limit orders. Stop-loss orders are always stop-limit (SL) orders. You decide how each limit price is set, per index and separately for entry, exit and stop loss.

While an order is unfilled, TradeMate moves its limit price again at each interval, up to the maximum number of revisions. The copy button gives every index the same settings in one click.

If your broker rejects an order, TradeMate can place it again by itself.

• Retry rejected orders — on or off. It is on to begin with.
• Max retries — how many attempts, from 0 to 100. The default is 3.
• Wait between retries (seconds) — the pause between attempts. The default is 1 second.
• Retry only with a reduced quantity — retry only when the quantity has been reduced.

The Orders tab lists the orders at your broker for the day.

• Filters: All, Open and Complete. Cancelled and rejected orders show under All.
• A pager with 5, 10, 25 or 50 rows a page, at the top and the bottom.
• Column filters, a column chooser, and columns you can drag into your own order.
• Tick open orders and press Cancel to cancel them.
• The download icon saves the order book as a CSV file.

Payoff in the top bar opens a live payoff graph of your positions on one underlying.

• The graph shows the payoff at expiry and today, the spot price, break-even points and one and two standard-deviation bands around spot.
• A summary lists the highest and lowest payoff at expiry, break-even levels, net credit or debit, the live P&L of the positions, and Delta, Theta and Vega.
• What if has two sliders. One moves the date towards expiry. The other shifts implied volatility by up to 20% either way.
• The legs table lets you leave a leg out of the graph.
• The graph refreshes every 2 seconds.

The graph is a calculation from current prices. It shows what your positions look like, not what will happen.

MTM in the top bar opens a chart of your MTM through the day.

• Choose the interval, from 1 second to 1 hour.
• Look at the total or one index at a time.
• See the current MTM, the day's high and low, and when each happened.
• Add up to six lines on top: SMA, EMA, WMA or Bollinger bands.
• Copy or download the data as CSV.

Indices opens the Index Summary: one row for each index you trade, and a TOTAL row. It opens in its own window that stays on top.

Columns include LTP, Change, Future, Synthetic future, ATM, MIS MTM, NRML MTM, MTM, MTM high and low, Decay, Delta and Net Qty. You choose which columns show.

The bar at the top of the screen starts with the index and expiry tile. Next to it are the numbers you check most, for the index and expiry you have selected:

• Spot, with the day's high, low and change.
• Syn Fut — the synthetic future.
• ATM Straddle — the call and put price at ATM added together.
• Pos Value and CE – PE — once you have positions.
• VIX.
• MTM, with the day's high and low and the number of open positions.

When the window is narrow, the bar shortens its labels rather than wrapping onto two lines.

TradeMate can send alerts to your own Telegram bot.

• Add your Bot token and Channel or chat ID, then turn on Send Telegram alerts.
• Turn on Send live MTM every to get your MTM at a fixed interval, from every minute to every 60 minutes. It is not sent while the market is closed or when MTM is zero.
• When you save, TradeMate sends a test message to check the details.

Choose PAPER TRADE or LIVE TRADE on the sign-in screen.

In Paper mode everything works as it does in live trading, but orders are simulated inside TradeMate. They get an order ID and a status, and no order reaches your broker. You still log in to your broker, because prices come from its live feed.

In Live mode, a red border runs round the whole window, so you always know real orders are on. The top bar also shows Paper Trade or Live Trade.

Each day you choose which instruments to trade, in Settings.

For each one you set:

• On — trade it today. Every instrument starts off when TradeMate opens.
• Expiry — tick every expiry you want to trade. You can tick more than one.
• Strike gap — the spacing between strikes in the chain. Leave it blank for the exchange's own step.
• Max qty / order — the largest quantity allowed in one order.

Nothing here is locked. You can switch an index or an expiry on or off at any time. The tile at the top left of the main screen does the same without opening Settings.

• Dark or Light theme, switched from the top bar.
• Text size from 80% to 200%, with A− and A+ or Ctrl + and Ctrl −. By default it follows your screen size.
• Confirmations — choose which actions ask "Are you sure?" first. Nine actions can ask. All of them ask to begin with.
• Your column choices, filters and layout are remembered.
• Support in the top bar opens the user guide inside TradeMate, raises a support ticket, or renews your plan, and shows when your plan ends. F1 opens the guide too.