One of the key benefits of using Trade Automation Toolbox for your 0 DTE trading is the stop monitoring and management.
Stop Monitoring and Replacement
In addition to placing the stop orders after the trade is initially filled, TAT monitors multiple times per minute to ensure you have stops on all of your short positions. In the event a stop is cancelled for any reason, by the user, brokerage, or exchange, TAT will replace the stop order automatically.
Vertical to Short Stop Conversion
Stop orders on vertical spreads risk not filling as expected in the event that there is no bid on the long leg and it's not possible to sell that leg as part of your spread order. This is most likely to be a problem with wider spreads and later in the afternoon. TAT monitors and adjusts stops for you as necessary to avoid this issue.
You can select a time in the afternoon for the software to automatically cancel vertical stops and replace them with short stops only. The software will also monitor your vertical stops during the day and convert them as necessary. If the long strike in a spread has no bids, the stop will automatically be changed to short only.
For trades with four legs, such as Iron Fly's and Full Iron Condors, each long leg is monitored individually. This will result in the stop order being changed from 4 legs to 3 legs, and eventually just the 2 short legs as the long legs go to 0 bid.
Switching stop from Short back to Vertical
If you wish, you can configure TAT to switch stops from Short back to Vertical in the event the long leg of a trade reaches a bid price of 0.10 or higher. This is disabled by default, but can be enabled on the Settings page. NOTE: this only applies to trade templates where the stop was original placed on Vertical originally. If the stop in the trade template is for Short only, then it will stay on Short, regardless of the bid price for the long.
Mismatched Stops
In the event, there is an unexplained mismatch of stop orders and current positions, a warning will be displayed on the Dashboard page of the application. You will also receive an email warning with the subject: "Missing Stop Detected". This is not a common or expected scenario, but happens most commonly if you trade manually outside of TAT.
Trades past Stop Trigger Level
TAT will also monitor for positions trading at a price higher than the stop trigger level. This is a very rare occurrence and could indicate some sort of Execution problem with IBKR. In the event this happens there will be a warning on the Dashboard page and also an email sent with the subject: "URGENT: Trade Beyond Stop Detected"
Over/Double Filled Trades
TAT also monitors for trades where the stop or closing orders over filled. This is most likely to happen if you are using the StopLimitOCO stop type where both the Stop Limit and and Stop Market orders may both fill. In the event this happens a popup message will appear in TAT. You will also receive an email with the subject: "URGENT: Trade Over Fill Detected". When this occurs, you will need to manually close the extra position in TWS directly.
Excluding non-TAT Accounts from notifications
Since TAT has access to positions and trades in all IBKR accounts that your TWS username can see, it is possible that your non-TAT positions could trigger a situation where a warning notification is sent. This is typical if you have a short position without an open stop order. To avoid having these warnings for accounts where TAT is not trading, you may provide the account number(s) you with for TAT to ignore on the Settings page.
Disable Stop Management (Danger Zone)
When you need to do something in trade terminal and you want to stop TAT to replace stops or profit target orders you can temporary disable Managing Stops
WARNING: Turning off stop monitoring essentially tells TAT not to manage the trade after it is opened. This affects both Stop-Loss and Profit-Target orders.
Use this feature carefully, and only for temporary situations.