Option Strategy Builder for Options and Futures Algos

This page explains what the strategy builder does, who it is for, how a strategy goes from idea to live order, and the rules and risk controls you can set. It also covers how it compares with coding your own algo, which plans include it, and answers to common questions.

What the QuantPower strategy builder does

The strategy builder is a visual workspace for designing rule-based trading strategies on Indian markets. It is built mainly for index options on Nifty, Bank Nifty, FinNifty and Sensex, and also handles futures and stock options.

In one screen you can:

• Build multi-leg positions. Combine calls, puts and futures in any mix, from a single long call to a four-leg iron condor or a hedged ratio spread.
• Define the entry. Enter at a fixed time, on an indicator signal, or when a price or premium condition is met.
• Define the exit. Exit on a target, a stop loss, a trailing stop, a fixed time or a portfolio-level MTM limit.
• See the payoff before trading. Every change to the legs updates the payoff chart, breakevens, maximum profit and loss, and the Greeks.
• Hand off to testing and execution. Send the finished strategy to backtesting, run it on the paper trading platform for options, or deploy it as one of your algo trading bots.

The builder replaces the spreadsheets, sticky notes and manual order entry that many option traders still rely on. Instead of placing four legs one by one and remembering to watch the stop loss, you describe the strategy once and the platform carries it out the same way every time.

Who the strategy builder is for

The builder suits anyone who trades with rules, from first-time option traders to full-time professionals.

• Option sellers who run short straddles, strangles, iron flies and iron condors and need strict exits on every leg.
• Option buyers who want to enter only when momentum confirms and exit fast when it fails, using rules from the stock options buying strategy.
• Intraday traders who trade time-based setups such as the 9:15 opening range breakout and want every trade closed before the market shuts.
• Positional traders who hold hedged positions over several days and need margin-efficient structures.
• Traders who know their rules but not Python. If you can write your strategy down as a list of conditions, you can build it without code.
• Authorised persons and advisors who want consistent execution of the same strategy.

How it works: from idea to live strategy

Every strategy in the builder is set up in six steps. Each step is a section of the same screen, so you can move back and forth until the strategy behaves the way you want.

Step 1: Choose the instrument and expiry

Select the underlying, such as Nifty 50 or Bank Nifty, and the expiry you want to trade. Nifty 50 and Sensex have weekly options; Bank Nifty and FinNifty options have monthly expiries only. The builder shows the current spot price, lot size and days to expiry so the rest of the setup starts from real values.

Step 2: Add the legs

Add each leg with its side, option type, strike and quantity. Strikes can be chosen in the way most traders think about them:

• By distance from ATM, such as ATM, ATM + 2 strikes or ATM − 300 points.
• By premium, such as the call closest to ₹50.
• By delta, such as the put nearest to a delta of 0.20.

Choosing strikes by rule rather than by fixed number matters for automation. A strategy that always sells the ATM straddle will pick the right strikes on any day, whereas one written for "25,000 CE" only works while the market is near 25,000.

Step 3: Set the entry rules

Decide when the strategy should open. The most common choices are:

• Time-based entry, such as 9:20 am every trading day, or only on expiry day.
• Indicator-based entry, using technical indicators on the underlying or the option, with the conditions set in the builder.
• Price or premium conditions, such as entering only if the combined premium of the straddle is above a certain level, or if the index has moved a set percentage from the previous close.
• Day filters, so the strategy can skip days you choose, such as major event days.

Step 4: Set the exits and risk controls

Exits are where most of the work happens, and the builder gives each one its own setting. You can combine:

• Per-leg stop loss and target, in points, percentage or rupees.
• Combined stop loss and target, measured on the net premium or P&L of the whole position.
• Trailing stop loss, which locks in profit as the trade moves in your favour.
• Time exit, such as squaring off everything at 3:10 pm.
• Re-entry rules, which decide whether a leg that was stopped out can be entered again and how many times.
• Portfolio MTM limits, which square off all positions if the day's mark-to-market loss or profit reaches your limit. This is handled by the risk management engine.

Step 5: Check the payoff, Greeks and margin

Before you save, check what the position looks like. The payoff chart shows profit and loss at expiry and today, with breakevens marked. The panel shows maximum profit and loss, net credit or debit, and the position's delta, gamma, theta and vega. You can try the same view on our free option profit calculator.

Check margin too. Hedged positions need far less margin than naked ones, so a protective wing can change how many lots your capital supports. The F&O margin calculator shows the requirement for any combination.

Step 6: Backtest, paper trade, then deploy

Save the strategy and send it to the backtesting engine to see how the rules would have performed over past expiries. Review the results, refine the rules if needed, then run the strategy in paper trading on live prices. When you are satisfied, deploy it as a bot on your connected broker account and let it run within its limits.

Strategies you can build without code

The builder handles the strategies Indian option traders use most, along with intraday and positional setups on the underlying.

You can start from a template and change any part of it, or build from a blank sheet. Index-specific pages cover how these strategies behave on Nifty options, Bank Nifty, FinNifty and Sensex options.

Example: an automated short straddle on Nifty

Here is how a common intraday strategy looks once it is set up in the builder.

1. Instrument: Nifty 50, current weekly expiry.
2. Legs: Sell 1 lot ATM call, sell 1 lot ATM put.
3. Entry: 9:20 am, every trading day.
4. Per-leg stop loss: 25% above the entry premium of each leg.
5. Re-entry: One re-entry per leg if the stop loss is hit before 1:00 pm.
6. Portfolio MTM stop: Square off all legs if the day's loss reaches your set rupee limit.
7. Time exit: 3:10 pm.

Each rule is explicit, so the backtest, the paper trade and the live bot all behave in the same way.

Example: a hedged iron fly with defined risk

Using the illustrative prices in the payoff preview above, with Nifty at 25,000, 12 days to expiry and a lot of 65:

• Buy 24,700 PE at ₹113.40, sell 25,000 PE at ₹227.10, sell 25,000 CE at ₹280.50 and buy 25,300 CE at ₹150.10.
• Net credit: ₹244.10 per unit, or about ₹15,867 per lot.
• Maximum loss: about ₹3,634 per lot, reached if Nifty expires beyond either wing.
• Breakevens: about 24,756 and 25,244.

The long wings cap the loss and reduce margin compared with a naked straddle. The builder shows these numbers as you adjust the wings, so you can trade off the credit you collect against the loss you can accept.

Entry rules in detail

Good entry rules are specific about time, condition and size.

Time windows. Many option strategies are sensitive to the time of entry because premiums decay through the day. A short straddle entered at 9:20 am behaves differently from one entered at 11:00 am. You can test several entry times in the backtesting engine and keep the one that holds up across market conditions.

Conditions on the underlying. You can require the index to be within a range, above or below a moving average, or past a breakout level. These filters keep a strategy out of conditions where it historically struggles.

Conditions on the options. Premium-based filters are useful for sellers: skip the trade if the combined premium is too low to justify the risk. Volatility-based filters help buyers avoid paying too much for options.

Position size. Size can be a fixed number of lots or tied to capital. Use the position size calculator to choose a size that keeps the worst expected loss within your limit.

For example, say you sell a Nifty straddle with a combined stop loss ₹40 above the premium you collected, and you are willing to risk ₹10,000. One lot of 65 units risks 40 × 65 = ₹2,600, so three lots risk ₹7,800 and four would risk ₹10,400, over your limit. The answer is three lots, even though ₹10,000 ÷ ₹2,600 comes to 3.85: always round down. Remember that a stop loss is a trigger, not a guaranteed price. If the combined premium jumps ₹100 at the open, three lots lose ₹19,500 before the stop can act.

Exit rules and risk controls

Exits decide whether a strategy survives a bad day. The builder treats them as first-class settings rather than afterthoughts.

Per-leg versus combined stop losses

A per-leg stop loss exits each leg independently when its premium moves against you. A combined stop loss watches the whole position and exits only when the net P&L hits the limit. Per-leg stops react quickly to a one-sided move; combined stops avoid exiting one leg on noise while the other leg is making money. Many sellers use both: a per-leg stop for sharp moves and a combined stop as the final limit.

Trailing stops

A trailing stop moves your exit level as the trade becomes profitable, so a winning position cannot turn into a large loss. You set how far the trail sits from the best price and how often it updates.

MTM limits for the whole account

An MTM stop loss squares off every position if the day's mark-to-market loss reaches your limit, regardless of which strategy caused it. This limits the damage when several strategies lose at the same time. It works by sending exit orders, so it can't guarantee the exit price: after a gap or in a fast market, the final loss can be larger than the limit. The risk management engine also supports an MTM target to lock in a good day.

Time exits and expiry handling

Intraday strategies can square off at a set time. Positional strategies can be set to exit before expiry day to avoid the sharp moves in option prices that come with very high gamma near expiry.

Kill switch

You can pause or exit any strategy instantly from the web platform or the mobile app. Brokers also maintain their own kill switch under SEBI's framework.

Payoff, Greeks and margin before you trade

Seeing the shape of a position before you place it prevents many expensive mistakes.

Payoff chart. The chart shows P&L at expiry as a solid line and P&L today as a dashed line. The gap between them is the time value still in the position. For option sellers, the dashed line rising toward the solid line over time is the theta they hope to earn.

Greeks. Delta shows how much the position gains or loses for a one-point move in the index. Gamma shows how fast delta changes. Theta shows how much the position earns or loses each day from time decay, and vega shows the effect of a one-point change in implied volatility. For a single option's fair value, use the Black-Scholes calculator.

Margin. The margin needed depends on the full combination of legs. Adding a protective wing to a short straddle can cut the margin sharply because the maximum loss becomes defined.

From backtest to paper trade to live

A strategy should earn your trust in stages.

Backtest. Run the strategy on past expiries with realistic costs. Look at the full distribution of results: the worst day, the longest losing streak and the maximum drawdown, not just the total profit. Our guide on how to backtest strategies shows what to look for, and the max drawdown calculator helps you measure the pain you would have lived through.

Guard against overfitting. If you adjust ten settings until the backtest looks perfect, you have probably fitted the noise. Change one thing at a time, keep rules simple and test on periods you did not use to design the strategy.

Paper trade. Run the strategy on live prices with virtual money for a few weeks. Compare fills and results with the backtest.

Go live. Deploy the strategy as a bot with the smallest size it allows and an MTM limit for the day. Increase size slowly once the live results match expectations.

Built for SEBI's retail algo framework

Since 1 April 2026, SEBI's framework for retail algorithmic trading has applied in full to all brokers. Algo orders are routed through registered brokers, approved strategies carry an exchange-assigned Algo ID, and brokers keep a kill switch and audit trail for every algo.

Strategies run on broker infrastructure or the client’s own static IP setup, not Wisdom Tree Ventures servers. The required host and broker session must remain available; check your connection before relying on unattended operation.

Check your broker connection

Your funds and positions stay with your broker. Check the Available-only connection list for your release and account, or request a connection. A strategy example is not a broker integration or exchange-approval claim.

Choose Automatic or Confirmation mode when saving and activating. Once enabled, Automatic runs the saved rules without per-signal confirmation; Confirmation waits for one-touch approval.

Strategy builder vs coding your own algo

Coding gives the most flexibility. For most traders, the builder covers the rules they actually use, with testing, execution and risk management already in place.

Plans and pricing

The QuantPower Standard plan is free during the Beta (₹299/month after); Professional is ₹499/month and Ultimate ₹999/month, GST extra. See pricing. Compare all plans on the pricing page, or book a free demo to see the builder with your own strategy.

Templates to start from

You do not have to start from a blank sheet. The builder includes templates for the setups traders use most, each with sensible default exits that you can change:

• Nifty short straddle at 9:20 am with a per-leg stop loss and a fixed time exit.
• Nifty iron fly with wings a set distance from the centre strike, for defined-risk premium selling.
• Iron condor with short strikes chosen by delta and long wings for protection.
• Bank Nifty monthly straddle for traders who want slower decay over several weeks.
• Bull call and bear put spreads for directional views with a capped cost.
• Opening range breakout on index futures, with the range window and exit time as settings.

Each template is a starting point. Change the strikes, timings or exits, then backtest your version before you run it.

Running several strategies at once

Most active traders run more than one strategy, and the risks add up in ways a single strategy view can hide.

Correlated positions. A short straddle on Nifty and an iron condor on Sensex both lose on the same large move, because the two indices move closely together. Running both doubles your exposure to a single event.

Account-level limits. Set an MTM stop loss for the whole account as well as limits for each strategy. If several strategies lose at the same time, the account limit stops the day before the losses compound.

Capital allocation. Decide how much margin each strategy may use. A strategy that needs more margin on a volatile day should not be able to crowd out the others.

Staggered entries. Entering several premium-selling strategies at the same minute concentrates risk at one price. Spreading entries across time or strikes can smooth results.

The platform shows every running strategy with its live P&L, open legs and stop levels in one view, so you can see the combined risk at a glance.

What you see while a strategy runs

Once a strategy is live, you supervise it rather than operate it. For each running strategy you can see:

• Live P&L for the whole position and for each leg.
• Order and fill log, with the time and price of every order, so you can check slippage against the backtest. Orders can fill in parts, so check the filled quantity as well as the price.
• Current stop-loss and target levels, including where a trailing stop has moved.
• Re-entries used, so you know how many attempts remain for the day.
• Alerts on the web platform and the mobile app when an order is rejected, a stop is hit or a broker session needs to be renewed.

You can pause a strategy, exit a single leg or exit the whole position at any time. Every action is logged, which helps when you review the day later.

Common mistakes when building strategies

Most problems with automated strategies come from a few avoidable errors.

Oversizing because the risk is defined. A hedged position has a known maximum loss, but that maximum can still be large. Size by the worst case, not the expected case.

Fixed strikes instead of relative ones. A strategy written for one strike only works while the market sits near it. Choose strikes by distance from ATM, by premium or by delta so the rules work on any day.

Ignoring costs. Strategies that trade often, or that use far out-of-the-money options with wide spreads, can lose their edge to charges and slippage. Include realistic costs in every backtest and estimate them with the brokerage calculator. Say a strategy makes 200 trades a year with an average gross profit of ₹60 a trade, ₹12,000 in total. If charges and slippage average ₹55 a trade, ₹11,000 goes in costs and ₹1,000 is left. Add ₹10 more slippage per trade and the same strategy loses ₹1,000.

Too many conditions. Each extra filter can make a backtest look better while making the strategy more fragile. Prefer a few rules that make sense to many rules that happen to fit the past.

Holding short options into expiry. Gamma rises sharply for at-the-money options in the last hours before expiry. If you sell options, decide in advance whether to exit before the final session.

No plan for a bad day. Every strategy should have a combined stop loss and a time exit, and the account should have an MTM limit. Decide these before the strategy goes live, not during a fast market.

Building for expiry day

Expiry day behaves differently from the rest of the week. Time value collapses through the session, at-the-money options can swing from worthless to valuable within minutes, and premiums for out-of-the-money options shrink toward zero.

Strategies built for expiry day usually share three features. They enter later in the session, when much of the remaining premium is time value that will decay before the close. They use tighter stop losses, because gamma makes losses grow quickly. And they exit at a fixed time before the close rather than holding to settlement. In the builder you can restrict a strategy to expiry days only, set a later entry time and add a hard time exit. Nifty 50 and Sensex have weekly expiries; Bank Nifty and FinNifty expire monthly, so expiry-day strategies on those indices trade once a month. Our analysis of expiry day liquidity and volatility shows how conditions shift through the session.

Key terms used in the builder

ATM, ITM and OTM. At the money is the strike closest to the current price. In the money options already have intrinsic value; out of the money options have only time value.

Lot size. The number of units in one contract, set by the exchange and revised from time to time.

Net credit and net debit. The total premium received minus premium paid. A credit strategy is paid upfront; a debit strategy pays upfront.

Wing. A bought option further from the money that caps the loss on a sold option.

Per-leg and combined stop loss. A per-leg stop exits one leg on its own premium; a combined stop exits the whole position on its total P&L.

Trailing stop loss. A stop that moves with the trade as it becomes profitable.

Re-entry. Opening a leg again after its stop loss is hit, within limits you set.

MTM. Mark to market, the running profit or loss of open positions at current prices.

Algo ID. The identifier the exchange assigns to an approved algo, attached to every order it sends.

Related guides

• Option profit calculator: the payoff of any options position
• Backtesting: testing rules on five years of 1-minute data
• Paper trading platform for options: running a strategy on live prices with virtual money
• Algo trading for retail traders: automation for an individual trading account
• Option trading app: the chain with live Greeks, IV and open interest

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• SEBI: Safer participation of retail investors in algorithmic trading, 4 Feb 2025
• SEBI: Extension of timeline for the retail algo framework, 30 Sep 2025
• NSE: Equity derivatives contract specifications
• NSE: Equity market trading system and order types
• Zerodha Kite Connect: Orders, order statuses and partial fills