Create a Bot

A bot is a saved trade plan that tradeSteward runs for you: what to trade, when to enter, and how to exit. This article walks through building one from a blank form.

Open the bot form

From the top navigation, open Bots and choose Create Bot, or go straight to the bot editor. The form is organized into cards, top to bottom: Identification, Trading Strategy, Position Legs, Trade Entry, Trade Exit, Trade Stop, and the optional condition and filter sections.

Name and file the bot

In the Identification card, give the bot a name you will recognize in reports, pick the Trading Account it should trade in, set its Bot Status, and choose a Strategy Assignment so its trades roll up into the right performance group. If you have not created strategies yet, see What Are Strategies in tradeSteward?.

Choose what the bot trades

The Trading Strategy card defines the shape of the trade:

• Underlying Symbol: the index or stock the bot trades. Once a bot has traded for the first time, its symbol is locked; to change it, copy the bot to a new bot.
• Trade Template: Single Leg, Vertical Spread, Condor, or Custom. Templates pre-arrange the legs; Custom lets you define each leg yourself.
• Number of Legs: one to four.
• Skip AM Expirations: for indices that have morning-settled expirations, tells the bot to always use PM expirations. Enabled by default.
• Sell Bidless Longs After Exit: when a closing order leaves out long legs that have no active bid, the bot sends a follow-up market order to sell them once the close fills.
• Efficient Spreads: lets the bot swap a long leg to a closer-to-the-money strike that costs the same, tightening spreads at no extra cost.

Define the position legs

Each leg gets its own card with an Option Type (Put or Call), Long or Short, a Strike Target and Target Type, a Size Ratio, and Days to Expiration. Two global toggles simplify common setups: All Legs 1x applies a size ratio of 1 to every leg, and the global Days to Expiration setting applies one DTE rule to all legs.

Days to Expiration has two modes. Exact only accepts the exact DTE you specify. Target picks the closest available expiration to your target, within your Min and Max. If no expiration fits, the bot aborts that entry attempt.

Strike targeting is the deepest choice in the form and has a dozen target types. See Strike Targeting: Delta, Premium, and More for the full list.

Set entries, exits, and protection

The remaining cards control behavior over the life of the trade. Set position size in the Trade Entry card (see Position Sizing) along with the entry window and speed (see Entry Timing). The same card also chooses between a bot that enters on its own schedule (Enter By: Bot Settings) and one that waits for you or a webhook (When Triggered), and between Single Entry and Multi-Entry. Then add a profit target or timed exit (see Profit Targets and Timed Exits) and a stop (see Stop Losses Explained).

A worked example, end to end

Here is how the pieces come together for a simple defined-risk put spread. The numbers illustrate the mechanics; they are not a recommendation.

1. Trading Strategy: Underlying Symbol SPX, Trade Template Vertical Spread, Number of Legs Two.
2. Leg #1 (the short leg): Option Type Put, Short, Strike Target Type Delta with a Target of 10. The bot will sell the put whose delta is closest to 10 at entry time.
3. Leg #2 (the protective wing): Option Type Put, Long, Strike Target Type Vertical Width with a Target of 25. The bot buys a put 25 points further out, capping the risk at the spread width.
4. Days to Expiration: use the global toggle, mode Exact, target 0 for same-day expiration, or a Target with a Min and Max for weekly trades.
5. Trade Entry: Position Sizing Quantity, 1 contract, an Entry Time Window such as 9:35:00 to 10:30:00, Days of Week All.
6. Trade Exit and Stop: a Percent Profit Target and a Percent Loss stop give the trade a defined take-profit and a defined pain point.

Every value above maps to a field covered in depth by the Bot Settings Reference.

Test, save, and enable

Before trusting a new bot, use the buttons in the Identification card. Test Run simulates the entry right now and shows you exactly which strikes the bot would pick with its current settings, without placing an order. Run Backtick sends the same configuration to Backtick so you can see how it would have traded historically.

Save the bot with Create Bot, then enable it on the View Bots page when you are ready for it to trade (walkthrough in Manage Your Bots). A disabled bot keeps its settings but never enters a trade.