-- ACondor LLC, developer of an automated options trading platform for tastytrade accounts, has published details of the delta defense logic that manages an iron condor after the market moves against it. The platform does not treat every tested strike the same way. It first decides whether the move is noise or a real catalyst, and that decision determines whether the position is defended or closed. Platform details are available at https://acondor.com/
The moment every premium seller dreads
An iron condor earns its credit while the underlying stays between the two short strikes. When price pushes toward one of them, that side is said to be tested, and the trader faces a choice under pressure: hold and hope, roll for more credit, or take the loss. Discretionary traders make that call emotionally and inconsistently. ACondor makes it mechanically, using two numbers it already tracks on every open position.
Number one: the short strike's live delta
Every open position is evaluated each cycle against a deterministic exit state machine. The delta defense rule watches the live delta of each short strike from the options greeks feed. Short strikes enter near 0.20 to 0.30 delta. When a short strike's delta climbs to roughly 0.45, a coin flip, the side is officially tested and the defense logic engages. Below that threshold the platform lets time decay keep working rather than reacting to a position that is merely wiggling.
Number two: the move ratio
Delta alone cannot distinguish a normal fluctuation from a genuine catalyst. So ACondor also computes a move ratio: the size of the move since entry divided by the implied move the market priced in at entry. A ratio near one means the underlying is doing roughly what the option chain expected. A ratio above roughly 1.5 means the underlying has blown through what was priced in. That is the signature of a catalyst, an earnings surprise, guidance change, or headline that reset the stock's range.
No catalyst: run the defense ladder
When a strike is tested but the move ratio stays inside the priced range, ACondor treats the pressure as noise and defends the way experienced premium sellers do. With ample time left, it rolls the quiet, untested side in toward the money to collect additional credit, which widens the breakeven on the tested side and lowers the position's maximum loss while theta keeps burning. The roll can never cross the tested short strike, so the structure is capped at an iron fly. Near expiration, the platform instead rolls the position out in time for a net credit. Rolls never widen the spread, every roll recomputes maximum loss against the per-trade risk cap, and a roll budget limits how many times any position can be adjusted. If the untested side is not quiet, or earnings are pending, the platform simply holds.
Confirmed catalyst: close, do not roll
When the move ratio is abnormal and a short strike is actually tested, ACondor closes the position regardless of days to expiration. Rolling assumes the underlying will revert toward its old range. On a real catalyst the move persists, and rolling the untested side into the trend only adds risk on the wrong side of a stock that is going somewhere. The delta versus move ratio distinction is exactly what separates noise from a catalyst, and the platform will not roll into a trend.
Safety rules always win
Delta defense sits below the expiration flatten and the hard stop in the exit priority table, so a position that is out of time or beyond its loss limit is closed before any roll is considered. Circuit breakers halt new entries during a volatility spike, but defense keeps running on existing positions. Both defense thresholds are operator tunable from the settings panel and take effect on the next cycle without a restart. Every defense action is logged with the rule that fired and the resulting profit or loss.
ACondor is in early access for tastytrade account holders. ACondor is trading software, not investment advice. Options trading involves substantial risk of loss, and past behavior of any strategy does not guarantee future results. More information is available at https://acondor.com/
Contact Info:
Name: Robin Lilly
Email: Send Email
Organization: ACondor LLC
Address: 2521 North Main Street, Las Cruces Unit 1-276, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88001, United States
Phone: +1-575-312-9326
Website: https://acondor.com
Release ID: 89202587