Profit Targets and Timed Exits
Bots can take profits for you automatically. Set a profit target and the bot places a resting closing order, or use a timed exit to close the trade at a specific time of day.
How profit targets work
Profit targets live in the Trade Exit section of the bot editor. When a trade opens, the bot places a resting closing order at your target price and leaves it working. If the market touches your price, the order fills and the trade is done, with no decision required from you. You can control the price threshold at which profit target orders are entered with the Profit Target Trigger setting in Account Settings under Bot Preferences, which keeps far-away targets from being submitted until the market gets close enough to matter.
The whole cycle is visible while it runs. The position and its exit show in Current Bot Positions on the Trading Dashboard, where you can also adjust the profit target on a live trade without changing the bot's saved settings. When the order fills, the exit lands in the bot's activity log and your Trade Log.
Profit target types
The Profit Target Type buttons choose how the target price is calculated:
| Type | How the target is set |
|---|---|
| Disabled | No profit target order is placed. |
| Fixed Closing Order Target | Places the closing order at the exact dollar price you enter in Closing Order Target. |
| Fixed Net Profit Target | Sets the target in dollars relative to the opening trade price, so the order adjusts to your actual fill. |
| Percent Profit Target | Sets the target as a percent profit of the trade entry price. |
Percent targets work on both sides of the market. For a long position entered as a $2.00 net debit, an 80 percent profit target places a closing order at $3.60. For a short position entered at a $2.00 net credit, the same 80 percent target places the closing order at $0.40.
Which type fits? Percent Profit Target scales with your actual entry, so a bot whose fills vary day to day keeps taking the same proportional win; it is the natural default for repeatable premium-selling bots. Fixed Net Profit Target aims for a consistent dollar amount above or below whatever the entry was, useful when your goal is a fixed dollar income per trade. Fixed Closing Order Target ignores the entry entirely and rests the order at an absolute price, which suits trades where a specific price level, not a profit amount, is the plan.
Timed exits
Timed Exit closes the trade at a set time of day instead of waiting for a price. Enable it, pick the Exit at Set Time, and choose the day it applies with Exit Days in Trade or Days to Expiration:
- To Expiration counts down calendar days to the nearest expiration in the trade. A setting of 0 exits on expiration day at your chosen time, and a setting of 1 exits the day before expiration.
- In Trade counts trading days since the position opened, which suits trades on longer dated expirations.
A timed exit and a profit target work well together: the profit target takes the win when the market offers it, and the timed exit makes sure nothing is carried past the day and time you chose if the target never fills. A same-day bot might pair an 80 percent profit target with a 0 DTE timed exit late in the session, so every trade ends the day flat one way or the other.
Disable Profit Target After Stop
Profit target orders are canceled while a stop loss is pending, and normally the bot puts them back if the stop check clears or only part of the trade was closed. Turn on Disable Profit Target After Stop if you want the profit target to stay off for the remainder of the trade once a stop has filled any portion of it.
Pair your profit target with a stop so both sides of the trade are covered. See Stop Losses Explained for the other half of the exit picture, and Bot Settings: Trade Exit for every field in this section of the form.