How setups are learned

Tented reads the account’s filled entries (drafts excluded), newest first, and groups the ones with the same shape on the same underlying: the same legs by side, type, ratio and expiration order.

Note

An entry with a stock or futures leg, a fractional quantity, or VIX or GC options is not learned. Entries without the underlying price at the fill teach nothing.

A group becomes a setup when:

• it has at least 3 entries. Only the most recent 8 set the values, so a change in habit is followed. The size is the median of those;
• each leg has one steady strike rule that, typically, places it within 0.25% of the underlying (roughly 15 points on SPX) of where you actually placed it. The rules are a delta (on the 5-delta grid when your entries agree), points or a percent from the price, points or a percent from another leg, or the same strike as another leg;
• the front expiration is a DTE band when more than half of the entries sit within 2 days (or 15%, if more) of the median DTE, otherwise the range of days you used. A later month is a fixed number of days after the front that more than half of the entries agree on, give or take a day.

DTE band

A DTE band is a target number of days to expiration with a tolerance, such as 21 DTE accepting 14 to 28. A setup picks the listed expiration nearest the target inside the band, and prefers a monthly if you set that.

After an import, Tented reads the underlying’s price from Interactive Brokers for each order, which needs a connection. The import result shows “Reading the underlying’s price at each order from Interactive Brokers” with a count. You can close the window and it carries on while Tented stays connected.

If a new trade offers no setups, see No setups on a new trade.