Requires: Regular edition or above (not available in the Free edition)
The Idea in One Minute
A rule is a sentence about one of your trades, for example: "When there are fewer than 21 days left, tell me to Alert; fewer than 14, Reduce; fewer than 7, Close."
You write the rules once. SOAP2 then checks them against your real positions all day, with no window open, and tells you when one is broken and what you said you would do.
You do not write rules from scratch. You pick a template (a ready-made set of rules for your kind of trade, such as an iron condor or a butterfly), look at what it says about your trade, adjust the numbers if you like, and press Save.
Important: SOAP2 only tells you. It never places, changes or cancels an order. Every number in a ready-made template is an example to tune to your own plan, not advice. Trade Rules is new (BETA).
Your First Rules in Six Steps
Open the trade's rules. In the Trade List, right-click the trade and choose Trade rules... (or select it and press Alt+X). In an Options Analysis window, click Rules... or press Alt+X.
Click Templates. It is in the toolbar above the rules. Pick the template that matches your trade (they are grouped by family: Butterfly, Credit spreads and condors, Debit spreads...). Not sure which? Click Templates ▸ Suggested for this trade first: SOAP2 names what your legs form and suggests a template. It does nothing until you click a suggestion. (A trade made of several combos is the exception: see SOAP2 Trade Rules Advanced: Hybrid Trades. Most trades never need it.)
Read the Now column. It already says what each rule thinks of your trade today. Nothing is saved yet, so you can look around freely.
Change a number if you want. Click a level (for example 21 Alert, 14 Reduce, 7 Close) and type. Now updates at once.
Press Save. From this moment SOAP2 watches the trade. Until you press Save, nothing you did counts.
See it all in one place. Press Alt+J, or go to Trades ▸ Trade rules dashboard. Every watched trade is listed with its worst open rule on one line.
What the Five Actions Mean
Action
Plain meaning
Alert
Look at this trade.
Adjust
Change the position (move a strike, add a hedge).
Roll
Move it to a later expiry.
Reduce
Make it smaller.
Close
Get out.
These are recommendations. You decide, and you place any order yourself.
Changed Your Mind?
You can always back out. Everything below happens on a private copy of your rules until you press Save, and closing the window without saving throws the edits away.
Delete a rule: click it (Ctrl-click or Shift-click for several) and press Delete. There is no confirmation, so use Undo (below) or close without saving if you slip.
Undo: press Undo on the toolbar (or Ctrl+Z). Press it again to go back another step.
Take a template's rules out: open Templates ▸ Remove rules from template and pick the template. Only the rules that came from it go; rules you wrote yourself stay.
Try another template on the same trade: open Templates ▸ Switch to template, pick the new one. The old template's rules are replaced in one step, so you can read Now, Undo and try a different one. Your own Strategy name is kept; tags are only ever added.
Where Things Are
I want to...
Go to
Edit one trade's rules
Trade List, right-click ▸ Trade rules..., or Alt+X
See every trade at a glance
Trades ▸ Trade rules dashboard, or Alt+J
Acknowledge or snooze a warning
The dashboard: select the row, then Acknowledge or Snooze
Make my own template, or edit one
The dashboard: Templates.... Pick one in the list on the left; a ready-made template opens as a copy
Set rules for a whole account
The dashboard: Account rules
Read what happened
Message Log, lines starting with [Rules]
Three Things to Know
Save is what switches monitoring on. Applying, deleting and switching only change the copy on screen.
A missing number is never "OK". If a price is missing, a rule shows n/a or stale, not green.
Margin rules need Planned Capital. Fill in the trade's Planned Capital box first, or those rules cannot work.
Learn More
Full documentation: Trade Rules user guide on the SOAP2 documentation site
The step-by-step guide for beginners: SOAP2 Trade Rules Beginner's Guide
Every ready-made template, rule by rule: SOAP2 Trade Rules Templates
