Documentation / Settings & Configuration

Settings & Configuration

Configure the platform to match your preferences and broker setup

API Credentials

Configure credentials for each external data provider:

  • Tradier: Enter your API key for Sandbox (paper trading) and/or Production (live trading) environments. The active environment is selected separately.
  • Polygon.io (Massive): Enter your Polygon API key. After saving, the server automatically probes your key to detect your API tier (free vs. paid), rate limits, and whether bid/ask data is available for options. This detection runs in the background — you do not need to restart anything.

Historical Options & Underlying Price Providers

Historical data is split into two independently-configured providers:

Historical Options Chain Provider:

  • Tradier: Chain structure and BSM-derived pricing via Tradier API
  • Massive: Chain structure and BSM-derived pricing via Polygon/Massive API
  • Saved Market Data: Builds the chain entirely from your local snapshot database — no external API calls needed
  • None: Historical option chains disabled

Historical Underlying Price Provider:

  • Tradier: Time & sales bars (not available for index underlyings)
  • Massive: Aggregate bars from Polygon/Massive
  • Interactive Brokers: Intraday 5-minute OHLC bars from TWS via the bridge — the best choice for index symbols (SPX, NDX, RUT) where other providers lack intraday data
  • Saved: Uses underlying OHLC data embedded in your local snapshots
  • None: Underlying price disabled

Massive tier: Select Free or Paid based on your Polygon.io subscription. Free gives daily bars and up to 5 API calls/minute. Paid gives 5-minute intraday bars and higher rate limits.

IV Derivation Method

IV Derivation Method (historical mode) controls how implied volatility is computed for each strike:

  • Per Strike (default): IV is solved individually for each contract using its actual market price. Produces a full volatility surface with strike-by-strike precision.
  • ATM Only: A single IV is derived from the near-ATM option and applied to all strikes. Faster and uses fewer API calls — useful on rate-limited plans.

Commission Rates

Set your default per-trade commission rates under Trading Preferences:

  • Option commission: Default fee per contract (e.g., enter 0.65 for $0.65/contract)
  • Stock commission: Default fee per share

Enter positive values — the system automatically converts them to negative values internally to reflect their cost impact on P&L calculations. These defaults apply to manually committed (model) trades. Broker-imported trades use the actual commission values reported by your broker.

IBKR Bridge Download & Configuration

The Interactive Brokers integration uses a small Bridge application that runs on your desktop alongside Trader Workstation (TWS). Available for Windows.

Step 1 — Enable the TWS API

In Trader Workstation, open Global Configuration → API → Settings. Check Enable ActiveX and Socket Clients. The default API port is 7496 for a live TWS session and 7497 for paper trading.

Step 2 — Download the Bridge

Go to Settings in Stratsigma and find the Interactive Brokers section. Click Download. This downloads two files — the Bridge binary and an ibbridge.json config file. Both files must stay in the same folder. Your browser may prompt for approval to download both; accept both prompts.

Step 3 — Run the Bridge

Run the downloaded binary directly — no installer, no additional software needed. On first run, the Bridge reads ibbridge.json from the same folder and connects automatically. No manual configuration or code entry is required. The Settings page shows a green status indicator once connected.

Timing and background operation

Setup takes about two minutes the first time. After that, the Bridge runs in the background whenever Trader Workstation is open and reconnects automatically.

What the Bridge provides

Order routing and synchronization, real-time market data for stocks, indices and options, and historical market data for stocks and indices.

Snapshot Symbols (Live Capture)

The Save Live Data toggle in Settings globally enables or disables the live capture background process. When enabled, the system automatically captures 5-minute bid/ask and OHLC snapshots during market hours for:

  • Symbols from your currently open trades (tracked automatically)
  • Any symbols you have manually added on the Data page as "evergreen" tracked symbols

To manage the list of manually tracked symbols or view accumulated snapshot counts, go to the Data page. The toggle here in Settings and the one on the Data page control the same setting.

Display Preferences

Configure how information is presented:

  • Table display mode: Choose between Large, Comfortable, or Compact row spacing in the options chain tables
  • Strike interval: Filter the chain to show only strikes at specific intervals (all, 1pt, 2.5pt, 5pt, 10pt, 25pt)
  • Preferred broker: Controls which broker's order flow is shown by default on the Broker Sync page