Auto-Exit is a safety net you can attach to any active trade. You pick a level to get out at, and the bot watches the price for you and closes the whole position the moment that level is reached. You can shut your laptop and go to dinner — it still works, because the watching happens on your bot, not in your browser.
You'll find it on each active trade card on the Live Trades page, just under the trade's details.
It isn't an order at your broker
This is the important difference between Auto-Exit and a normal stop-loss or profit target.
A normal stop-loss and take-profit — the ones described in Modifying Stop-Loss & Take-Profit — are real working orders sitting at your broker, waiting to be filled. Auto-Exit is not. Nothing is placed, nothing is resting in the market, and nobody else can see your level. Your bot simply watches the live price and, when your level is reached, sends a normal market close.
That has two practical consequences:
- It stacks on top of your existing bracket. Your regular stop-loss and take-profit keep working exactly as they always have. Auto-Exit is an extra layer, not a replacement.
- It needs the market open to actually get you out. Since the exit is a market order sent at the moment your level is reached, it can only fill when the contract is tradeable. If the level is reached at a time your broker won't accept the order, the bot retries a few times and then tells you it gave up — with the position still open.
Three ways to set a level
When you arm Auto-Exit you first choose what your numbers mean:
| Setting | What you type | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Price | A price on the contract itself, like 3.50 |
"Get me out if this contract touches $3.50" |
| P&L $ | A dollar profit or loss for the whole trade, like 400 or -250 |
"I'll risk $250 on this and I'm happy with $400" |
| P&L % | A percent gain or loss, like 50 or -25 |
"Take 50% and run; cut it at -25%" |
You can set a take-profit, a stop-loss, or both. Leave a box empty to skip that side.
Example
You're long two SPY calls filled at $2.40 each. You're comfortable risking about $250 on the trade and you'd be glad to take $400. Click + Auto-exit, switch the setting to P&L $, type
400in the TP box and-250in the SL box, and confirm. From then on the bot watches your live profit and loss and closes both contracts the moment it crosses either number — whether you're watching or not.
In the two P&L settings you can use a plus or minus sign, and both boxes accept either. That's deliberate: it lets you set a stop that's already in profit. Typing 100 in the SL box while using P&L $ means "if this trade ever gives back down to only +$100, get me out" — a way to lock in a win you've already earned.
Once it's armed
Your levels show up as a green TP chip and a red SL chip on the card.
Next to each chip are small ▲ / ▼ arrows — tap them to nudge that level up or down without reopening the editor. The step size follows your setting: one cent for Price, five dollars for P&L $, one percent for P&L %.
Use Edit to change the numbers or switch to a different setting, and Clear to switch Auto-Exit off entirely.
It fires once. When a level is reached, the trade closes and Auto-Exit turns itself off. If you open a new position later, you arm it again.
It won't let you close yourself out by accident
If you try to arm a level the trade has already passed, the bot refuses it and tells you where the trade actually is right now. This is on purpose: typing 25 when you meant -25 in the P&L % box would otherwise flatten your position a second later. If you genuinely want out at the current price, use the Close button instead.
Adding to a position later
If you average into a trade after arming Auto-Exit, your levels stay correct. The bot re-checks them against your new blended cost every time, so a -25% stop still means "down 25% from what I actually paid" rather than getting stuck on your original entry price.
What it works on
Auto-Exit is available on standard single-contract trades, on multi-leg "runner" trades (where it closes every remaining leg at once), and on futures. It isn't offered on spread trades — a spread is priced as a combined net number whose profitable direction depends on how the spread was opened, so a single level would be ambiguous. Spreads keep their own Close controls.
Note
Auto-Exit is per-trade and personal to your account. It's separate from the Killswitch, which watches your whole day's profit and loss and can stop everything at once.
Tip
If you're new to this, the safest way to try it is on a paper trade first — see Paper Trading. Arm a level just above or below where the contract is trading, watch it fire, and you'll know exactly what to expect before you use it on real money.