🧪 Combo — every structure, then you narrow
Combo builds every 2-, 3- and 4-leg option structure that the last session's real quotes allow (often hundreds of thousands), prices each one, and lets you narrow the list instantly by maximum loss, reward-to-risk, chance of profit, bias and break-even. Click any row for the full trade window.
💡 How to think about it
Other pages start from a view ("I think it stays in a range") and build one structure. Combo does the opposite: it enumerates everything, then you describe the trade you want — "max loss under $500, no loss if the price stays above 180, a credit" — and see every shape that fits, including ones you would never think of.
⚠ Fill = mid by default
A real order fills across the spread. Mid prices can create "too good to be true" structures that do not exist. Set Fill to 25–50 % across for realistic numbers.
New words? Glossary. The top strip works as on every ticker page.
⚡ The scan settings
Settings sit in labelled boxes: 🧱 Build (how big the search is), 💧 Liquidity (which contracts may be used), 💲 Pricing (how a trade is priced), then ⚙ Advanced and 🎯 Narrow.
| Control | What it does | Suggested |
|---|---|---|
| Expiry + chips | The main expiry (◉). Tick more chips (☑) to scan several expiries and rank them together. | 20–45 days |
| Strikes | How many strikes nearest the price may be used (calls and puts both). Liquidity and Δ gates usually leave fewer. | 20 |
| Legs ≤ | 2 = spreads only · 3 adds flies and ratios · 4 adds condors and boxes. | 3 |
| Qty ± | The most contracts on any one leg, long or short (1–4). | 2 |
| Max |Δ| % | Only contracts with delta up to this. 80 skips deep in-the-money ones. | 80 |
| = N combos | How many structures the next ▶ Scan will build. Turns amber "(slow)" above 4 million; 4 legs on many strikes grows fast. | under 4 M |
| Max spread % · or ≤ $ | Skip contracts whose bid/ask is wider than this % of mid, unless the spread is under $X. | 35 % · 5 cents |
| Min OI | Skip contracts with less open interest. | 10 + |
| auto-relax | If too few contracts pass, loosen the gates step by step, and say so (amber). | on |
| quality pass | Repair bad quotes (crossed, below intrinsic, jagged smile) before pricing; the line under the settings reports what was fixed or skipped. | on |
| Fill | Where fills land: mid · 25/50/75 % across · ask / bid. | 25–50 % |
| Target % | Your expected move (±). Its sign is your favoured side and drives the T-Score. | +10 bull / −10 bear |
| IV shock % · mode | IV change applied in the path scenarios: both ways, skew (up when price falls), or down only. | 13 · skew |
⚙ Advanced
Hidden until you tick it; unticking only hides them, they still apply.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Rate % | Interest rate for pricing. |
| Keep top | How many results to keep (half by Score, half by T-Score). |
| primitive only | Drop 2×2 copies of 1×1 trades. |
| Ladder · at % of days | The price moves used in the ladder columns and when they are checked. |
| Families | Which payoff shapes to include: spreads · straddle-like · tent / table (butterflies, condors: profit in the middle) · well / trough (loss in the middle) · ladder / ratio · hockey stick · ramp · W / M / notch · flat (box). |
Narrow strip — describe the trade you want
These filter the results instantly and also act as gates for the next scan.
| Filter | What it does |
|---|---|
| Max loss $ | Worst case at expiry (blank = any). |
| Min max profit $ | Best case must be at least this. |
| Min R:R | Max profit ÷ max loss. 0.33 = risk $3 to make $1; 2 = risk $1 to make $2. |
| Cash | any · credit (you receive) · debit (you pay). |
| Min POP % | Minimum chance of profit at expiry. |
| Bias | any · bullish · bearish. |
| Break even ◂ / ▸ | A price (180) or % of spot (−5 %). With Bias bearish, ◂ = no loss from here down; bullish ▸ = no loss from here up. Both = no loss anywhere across the band. |
| defined risk | Keep out structures with unlimited loss (naked). |
| 💰 in the money | Only trades that are already winning at today's price. Expect a high POP and a small best case — the price of being in the money already. |
If you loosen a filter beyond what the last scan used, the note turns amber: press ▶ Scan again to see the extra structures.
| POP and R:R together | What kind of trade |
|---|---|
| POP 70–85 %, R:R 0.2–0.5 | Credit trades: win often, small wins, bigger occasional losses. |
| POP 40–60 %, R:R about 1 | Balanced spreads. |
| POP 15–35 %, R:R 2–5 + | Debit / long-vol trades: lose often, big occasional wins. |
🎓 Pro tipPOP and R:R trade off against each other almost perfectly on a fair market. Look at EV to see whether a structure breaks that trade-off. A positive EV at a 25–50 % fill is rare and worth a closer look; at mid it is often an illusion.
Results: pills, census and table
Pills at the top summarise the universe (legs used, spot, expiry, how many passed). The run line lists how many combinations each gate cut; if nothing passed, it names the biggest cut to loosen. Census (left) counts the kept structures by crossing count (how many break-evens) and by shape — click entries to filter the table. The column bar above the table switches column groups on and off.
Table columns
| Column | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Shape · Bias | A mini payoff drawing and the shape name · BULL / BEAR / neutral: does it pay more if the price rises or falls. |
| Exp · Legs | Expiry and legs (quantity · strike · C/P). |
| Net cash | + credit received · − debit paid. |
| Max P / Max L | Best / worst at expiry. A "naked" flag = unlimited risk. |
| R:R | Max profit ÷ max loss. |
| ◂ Bear / Bull ▸ · Zone · Offset | The profit or loss zone's lower and upper edges as distance from the price, its width, and where its middle sits. + zone = profit hill, − = loss valley. |
| BE $ | Every break-even price. |
| POP | Chance of profit at expiry. |
| EV · EV % | Expected P/L at expiry, and as % of capital at risk. |
| sITM · Deep | The worst short leg's chance to finish in the money / deep in the money. Above 50 % / 25 % shaded as a warning. |
| T-Score | 0–100 against your Target %: value on your side at expiry (45 %), the carry on the way (30 %), the worst case the other way (25 %). Above 50 suits your target. |
| 25 % / 50 % / 75 % / @Exp | P/L after that share of the days if the price does not move (IV unchanged) — time decay working for or against you. |
| Δ · Γ · Θ/d · V | Net delta (shares), gamma, theta ($/day), vega ($ per vol point). |
| OI · Spr | Thinnest leg's open interest; widest leg's spread %. |
| Score | A neutral blend of EV/risk, POP and liquidity. Sort by T-Score to rank against your own view. |
| Liquidity check | Meaning |
|---|---|
| OI 500+ and Spr under 10 % | Easy to trade. |
| OI 50–500 or Spr 10–25 % | Tradable with a limit order. |
| OI under 50 or Spr above 25 % | Hard to fill near the shown price; expect slippage. |
The trade window (click any row)
The same window opens from Combo, Trade, Strategy and Bands. Esc closes it.
| Section | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Metrics | All the numbers for this structure in one grid. |
| Is there a better trade? | Searches every shape on this expiry for structures at least as good on every measure you tick and better on one. Options: same shape, same lean. |
| Payoff through time | P/L curves today, mid-way and at expiry, with walls, flip and max pain marked. |
| P/L grid | A heat map of P/L by price move (in σ) and time, with the chance of finishing at or above each price. |
| Legs | Each leg's quote, Greeks and IV. |
| Same structure across expiries / strikes | The same shape on other expiries, or shifted up/down: is a nearby version better? |
| Leg history | The last 60 sessions of these contracts' prices. |
| 📌 Follow | Save it to the followed book to see its P/L change over the next sessions (kept in this browser). |
🎓 Pro tipAlways run "Is there a better trade?" with Max loss, POP and EV ticked before placing an order. It often finds the same idea one strike over, or on the next expiry, with a better profile. "Same shape" keeps it the trade you meant.
🔢 Board and 📌 followed
🔢 board (the tick box beside ▶ Scan) shows the option board for an expiry — every strike's quotes, open interest and liquidity — so you can see why some strikes were excluded. 📌 followed lists structures you followed: entry cash, current mark (at mid), P/L, and best / worst since. A mark is not a fill.
A routine that works
- Choose the expiry; keep Legs ≤ 3, Fill 25–50 %.
- ▶ Scan.
- Describe what you want in the Narrow strip: max loss, cash, break-even side.
- Sort by EV or T-Score; check Spr and OI.
- Open the best few in the trade window; run "Is there a better trade?".