Automating a Position

Templates and strategies set up automation before a trade opens. But sometimes you open a position — by hand, or from a template — and only then decide it needs a rule, or a safety net. You can attach automation to any single open position after the fact, right from its details, without touching the template it came from or any of your other positions.

Open a position from your Dashboard to bring up its details sheet (see Position details). Two of its tabs are about automation, and they're the same two mechanisms explained in Automating exits & management — here scoped to just this one trade:

• Rules — app-side management rules that VolNinja runs while it's on.
• Standing Orders — broker-side stop/limit orders that Interactive Brokers enforces on its own.

Add a management rule — the Rules tab

The Rules tab lists this position's management rules. Click Add Rule to create one; it opens the same rule editor used on templates (conditions and actions work the same everywhere — see Rules & conditions). Each rule then appears as a card showing:

• Its priority — the P badge (e.g. P10); a lower number runs first.
• The conditions it watches and the action it takes when they're met (Close Position, Close Leg, and so on).
• Controls to pause, edit (pencil), or delete (trash) it.

Read the execution counts

Every rule card carries a runs badge — how many times it has already fired, like 2 runs or 0/1 runs when you've set a maximum. Once a rule reaches its cap, the badge turns red and the rule stops firing. To let a capped rule run again, click Reset execution count (the ↺ button). Pause (⏸) suspends a rule without deleting it — it dims and shows a PAUSED badge — and Resume (▶) brings it back.

If any entry rules fired when the position first opened, a collapsed Entry Rules (already executed) card appears below the active rules, listing them for reference only.

Add a safety net — the Standing Orders tab

The Standing Orders tab attaches broker-side protection to this position: real stop, limit, or stop-limit orders that sit at Interactive Brokers and fire even if VolNinja — or your whole machine — is offline. Click Add Standing Order, then pick the order type, whether it covers the whole position or a single leg, and the trigger price.

Once one or more orders are working, a Broker Status header appears at the top of the tab: how many orders are working, a PAPER or LIVE badge for the account they're in, and — for positions with more than one standing order — how each one's cancellation is coordinated with its partner. That last part is what the three labels mean:

• Broker-enforced — Interactive Brokers cancels the paired order itself, the moment one fills (a "one-cancels-all" group). This is the most resilient kind: it holds even if VolNinja, or your whole machine, is offline.
• App-coordinated — VolNinja cancels the paired order when it sees the first one fill. This only happens while the app is running.
• Standalone — the order has no partner to cancel, so there's nothing to coordinate; it simply works on its own.

In short: broker-enforced protection survives the app being offline, app-coordinated does not, and standalone orders stand alone. For how orders get paired and why you'd choose one arrangement over another, see Standing orders.

Each order shows as its own card with its type, target, and trigger. Pausing a standing order cancels its live broker order until you resume it; deleting one cancels the order and re-arms the rest.

What "this position" means

Everything you do on these tabs affects only this one position — never the template it was opened from, and never your other open trades. Each position carries its own copy of its rules (see Automating exits & management for how that snapshot is taken at open). To change the automation that future trades start with, edit the template instead — see Management rules and Standing orders.

And remember the core difference between the two tabs: management rules act only while VolNinja is running, while standing orders hold at your broker even when it isn't.