Here's a problem every options trader runs into. You've decided you want to be long SPY calls — but not yet. You want in when SPY gets to $612.50.
Your broker can't help you. You can place a limit order on the option ("buy this call at $4.10"), or a limit order on the stock ("buy 100 shares of SPY at $612.50"), but there is no order type anywhere that says "buy this option when the stock reaches this price." So traders sit and stare at a chart, waiting to click.
That's what this fixes. You tell us the stock and the price. We watch it for you. The moment the stock touches your price, we buy the option at market.
You can shut your laptop and go to dinner — it still works, because the watching happens on our side, not in your browser.
A concrete example
SPY is trading at $610.12 right now. You think if it pushes through $612.50 it runs, and you want calls when it does.
- Type SPY in the Stock box. The live price appears underneath.
- Type 612.50 as your Trigger Price. Under it you'll see: Fires when SPY rises to $612.50.
- Choose Calls.
- Leave Smart Contract Logic on — we'll pick the best strike when the moment comes.
- Choose Today only.
- Press Arm Trigger.
Now nothing happens until SPY prints $612.50. When it does, we buy the call immediately, and the waiting card is replaced by a real trade you can manage like any other.
If SPY drifts down to $607 and never comes back, nothing is bought. The trigger cancels itself at the 4:00 PM ET close and you're out nothing.
Where to find it
There are two places, and they do the same thing for different audiences:
- Hybrid Trade — arms a trigger for your own account. When it fires, the trade opens under the strategy you picked, and that strategy's exit rules (trailing stop, profit target, time limits) manage it exactly as if an alert had brought it in.
- Copy Trade — arms a trigger for a strategy you publish. When it fires, the alert goes out to your members like any other entry alert. (Only you can see a trigger while it's waiting — your members see nothing until it actually fires.)
You name a price, not a direction
You'll notice there's no "above" or "below" choice. That's on purpose.
We work out the direction from where your price sits compared to where the stock is right now, and then we hold that answer:
- A price above the stock fires when it rises to your number.
- A price below the stock fires when it falls to your number.
It also means you can never accidentally arm a trigger that fires the instant you set it. Type 612.50 while SPY is at $610.12 and it waits for a rise; type 605 and it waits for a fall. Either way the preview under the box spells it out before you commit.
Note
You can't set a trigger at exactly the price the stock is trading at — there'd be no direction for it to fire in, and it would go off on the very next tick. Pick a number a little above or below.
Picking the contract: Smart, or your own strike
Smart Contract Logic (the default) means we choose the strike at the moment the trigger fires. We look at the nearest strikes, score them on how actively they're trading, and buy the best one. This is usually what you want — especially for a trigger that might sit for days, because the contract is always chosen fresh.
Pick strike lets you name the exact expiration and strike yourself. Turn Smart off and the expiration and strike boxes appear.
You can switch between the two at any time while the trigger is waiting — see below.
How long it waits
| Setting | What happens |
|---|---|
| Today only | Cancels itself at the 4:00 PM ET close if the stock never reaches your price. |
| Until filled | Keeps waiting, day after day, until the stock gets there. |
Warning
If you choose Until filled and pick your own strike, that contract can expire before the stock ever reaches your trigger. We cancel the trigger automatically when that happens and tell you why — but the trigger is gone, and nothing was bought. You'll get a warning when you arm it if the contract is close to expiring. Smart Contract Logic doesn't have this problem, because the contract isn't chosen until the moment it fires.
While it's waiting
A waiting trigger shows up as its own card — under Pending Triggers on the Live Trades page for a Hybrid trigger, or at the top of Open Positions & Today on Copy Trade.
The card updates the stock price live, tick by tick, and shows you how far it still has to go:
| SPY now | Trigger | To go | |
|---|---|---|---|
| $610.12 | ▲ | $612.50 | $2.38 |
You can change your mind without starting over:
- Change price — move the trigger up or down. We work out the direction again from the new number, so you can move it from above the stock to below it and it just flips to waiting for a fall.
- Smart ⇄ Pick strike — switch between letting us choose and naming your own contract, as many times as you like.
- ✕ Cancel trigger — removes it. Nothing was ever placed, so there's nothing to unwind.
The only time the controls lock is the couple of seconds while the order is actually going in — the card says Placing… and everything greys out, because at that point your change would arrive too late to matter.
Things worth knowing
It's a market order. When the trigger fires you pay whatever the option costs at that moment. If the stock gaps straight through your price — say it opens at $618 when your trigger was $612.50 — you're buying at $618's option prices, not $612.50's. There was never an order resting at your price to fill, so there's nothing to protect you from the gap. This is the same trade-off as pressing the buy button yourself the moment you see the move.
It only fires during regular market hours. 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET. If the stock trades through your price in after-hours, the trigger stays armed and waits — the after-hours book is thin and you'd get a terrible fill. An overnight trigger that's already been passed will fire on the opening print.
Nothing rests at your broker. Like Auto Scale-In and Auto-Exit, this lives in our system. Nobody can see your price, no buying power is tied up while it waits, and it survives a restart on our end — it's saved, not held open in a browser tab.
Everything still applies when it fires. Your daily trade limit, your killswitch, your position sizing, your maximum open trades — a triggered entry goes through exactly the same checks a manual entry does. If one of them says no, the trigger stops and tells you which one, and nothing is opened.
Single-leg options only, for now. Calls or puts, one contract type at a time. Spreads and futures aren't supported yet.
Tip
Not sure where to start? Arm one Today only trigger with Smart Contract Logic on a stock you watch anyway, a little away from where it's trading. Watch the card count down. You'll know within a session whether it fits how you trade.