Rewind lets you view an Options Analysis (OA) window as it looked at a past date/time — historical
prices, Greeks, IV, sigma lines and Risk Graph instead of live data — so you can review a trade
entry/exit or study a chain under past conditions. Premium feature.
With an OA window open and a chain loaded, click the Rewind button in the toolbar, or press Ctrl+Shift+R.
A calendar/scrollbar window opens. Bolded dates have historical data available.
Rewind is not active yet — nothing changes in the OA until you click a date on the calendar. The window's text reminds you of this.
If no dates are bolded at all (no history exists yet for this symbol/expiry), Rewind starts fetching data automatically as soon as the window opens — you don't need to click anything. Watch the status text in the picker window.
Step 2: Pick a date and time
Click a bolded date — Rewind activates on that day's last bar. Then drag the scrollbar to any other bar. Each scrollbar position triggers exactly one snapshot (no continuous scrub animation).
Bar Open Time: the scrollbar times are each bar's opening time, in UTC — a 15-minute bar labeled 13:30 covers 13:30–13:45.
You can also click a date that isn't bolded (no history exists for it yet) — see If a date isn't available below.
The Rewind window stays open the whole time, so you can keep picking new dates/times without reopening it. If a background fetch completes while you're scrubbing, your selected time is kept (the view doesn't jump).
Backfill bar size: a dropdown lets you choose the granularity SOAP2 requests from IB when it needs to fetch missing history — 5, 15 (default), or 30 minutes. Finer bars mean more IB requests (slower) but a more precise snapshot.
Step 3: Resume Live
Click the toolbar button again (it now reads Resume), or close the Rewind window.
The grids are cleared and repopulate from fresh live quotes; timers, the Risk Graph, model entry and order transmission all resume exactly as before the Rewind session — the OA's live state (rates, ATM IV, price anchors) is snapshotted on entry and restored verbatim on exit.
Reading the displays during Rewind
The status box shows REWIND {bar timestamp}. {Symbol}: {price} — the actual bar backing the snapshot (which can be slightly earlier than the scrollbar time if that exact bar is missing).
The ATM box shows the ATM IV for the selected moment and its source:
(IV: ATM C+P avg) — computed from the exact ATM strike's historical call and put prices (the accurate case);
(IV: nearest leg N) — an approximation from the nearest strike that has data, shown while the exact ATM strike's history is still being fetched. Skew makes this less precise; it upgrades automatically once real ATM data lands.
DTE, Greeks, theta decay, T+n labels and sigma lines are all anchored to the selected historical moment, not to today — scrubbing through a day shows real intraday time decay.
Everything the picker window displays is also mirrored to the Message Log as [Rewind popup] ... lines, so a session can be reviewed afterwards.
The Risk Graph waits for data to settle
While a background fetch is still filling in one or more legs, the Risk Graph is deliberately left blank (with a "waiting for leg history to settle" status) rather than drawn from partial data — a half-fetched leg shifts the whole P&L curve. It draws automatically, correct on first appearance, as soon as every leg has data for the selected time.
What still works during Rewind
Editing the model (checking/unchecking strikes, adjusting quantities) — fully usable, so you can shape a trade while reviewing history and send it for real once you click Resume. A newly added model strike triggers its own history fetch for the viewed date.
The Commit form — opens normally.
What's blocked during Rewind
Sending an order to IB is blocked while the OA is in Rewind mode, since the prices on screen are a historical snapshot, not live quotes. Resume Live first, then send the order.
If a date isn't available
Rewind only has data for dates already downloaded — but you don't have to wait for that. Pick any past date/time in the calendar (bolded or not):
If the current symbol/expiry has trade history on record, SOAP2 automatically fetches missing history from IB in the background — a status message shows, and the view populates on its own once the data arrives. A first visit to a new date or price area can take up to a minute; revisits are instant. Fetches also cover a band of strikes around the money so the ATM IV and sigma lines stay accurate as you scrub.
If there's no recorded trade for this symbol/expiry yet, automatic backfill is skipped (there's no reliable date range to guess). The Rewind status text tells you to run the historical downloader manually for that symbol.
Data quality
Option history is fetched as MIDPOINT (continuous bid/ask midpoints), which stays accurate even for strikes that rarely trade. Older files downloaded as TRADES (actual prints, which can be sparse and stale) are detected automatically, set aside, and refetched cleanly — you'll see a "TRADES-era history set aside" message in the log when this happens.
The index underlying itself (e.g. SPX) is fetched as TRADES — indices have no bid/ask.
Limitations
Single historical price per strike (no bid/ask reconstruction) — Greeks/IV are computed from that one price the same way they are live.
No continuous scrubbing/playback — one recalculation per scrollbar position.
A row with no historical bar at/before the selected time is left blank rather than guessed.
A strike whose trade happened after the selected date/time is also left blank — Rewind respects the trade timeline and won't show a leg as if it already existed before it was actually opened.
The risk-free rate uses the same live rate curve as Live mode (rates move little day-to-day; consistency between modes was preferred over per-timestamp historical rates).
VIX history is recorded daily, so the VIX-based IV seed is a daily value, not intraday.
