NIFTY iron condor settings, each one explained

Entry and strikes

Where the four legs go at 13:30.

Short put distance

How far below NIFTY spot the short (sold) put sits. At 13:30 the strike is spot × (1 − this %), rounded down to the nearest 100. Spot 22,850 at 3 % → 22,164 → short put 22,100.

Higher: further from spot, less premium, the put side is tested less often. Lower: more premium, but a smaller fall puts the short put at risk.

You choose 1.5–6 % below spot.

Short call distance

How far above NIFTY spot the short (sold) call sits. At 13:30 the strike is spot × (1 + this %), rounded up to the nearest 100. Spot 22,850 at 3 % → 23,536 → short call 23,600.

Higher: further from spot, less premium, fewer call-side scares on rallies. Lower: more premium, more exposure to a rally.

You choose 1.5–6 % above spot.

Wing width

Distance from each short strike to its hedge. The long put is short put − wing; the long call is short call + wing. The hedges cap the loss.

Wider: hedges cost less, so you keep more credit, but the worst-case loss per lot, (wing − credit) × 65, and the margin both grow. Narrower: smaller worst case and margin, less credit.

You choose 100–500 points.

Entry filters

Checks that can skip the day's entry. Any one failing means no trade that day.

Skip if India VIX ≥

If India VIX at 13:30 is at or above this, there is no entry that day. If VIX can't be read, the day is skipped too.

Lower: sits out more nervous markets, fewer trades. Higher: trades on more days, including the volatile ones where big moves are more likely.

You choose 12–35 VIX.

Minimum entry credit

Credit check at 13:30 with SELL legs at the ask and BUY legs at the bid. The call spread and the put spread must each earn more than 0, and together at least this many points.

Higher: fewer entries, each with a bigger cushion. Lower: more entries, thinner cushion. 1 point = ₹65 per lot.

You choose 3–50 pts per unit.

Minimum realisable credit

Liquidity check: the credit if every leg filled at the worse side of the quote (SELL at the bid, BUY at the ask). Must be at least this many points.

Higher: skips days with wide bid-ask spreads, where real fills would be poor. Lower: accepts worse fills.

You choose 2–30 pts per unit.

Expiry exit

What happens at 15:10 on the expiry day.

Let expire below

At 15:10 on the expiry day, a leg whose bid is under this price is not closed; it is left to expire at zero. Every other leg is closed.

Higher: fewer exit orders, saving about ₹28 of charges per leg, with a small risk that a nearly worthless leg moves in the last 20 minutes. Lower or 0: closes more legs.

You choose 0–10 ₹ bid.

Stop-loss

When MyZTEN raises a stop-loss alert on a side. Nothing closes on its own: you tap Exit.

Stop-loss alerts

Watch each open trade's short legs during market hours and alert you when a side breaches the rules below. You then exit that side with one tap.

On: you are told when a side goes badly wrong. Off: trades run to expiry unless you exit them; the wing still caps the loss.

You choose undefined–undefined .

Alert when short leg is

A side breaches when its short leg's last price rises above this multiple of the price you sold it at. Sold at 8 with 3× → alert above 24.

Lower: earlier alerts, and more exits on moves that would have reversed. Higher: fewer alerts, but a bigger loss by the time one comes.

You choose 2–8 × its entry price.

Only in the last

Stop-loss checks only run when the trade's expiry is this many days away or fewer.

Smaller: early spikes are ignored, giving the trade time to recover. Larger: watches the trade for longer and alerts on earlier moves.

You choose 1–10 days to expiry.

Require a 5-day trend

Also require NIFTY's 5-session move to point at the breached side: up by more than the trend % for the call side, down by more than it for the put side.

On: fewer alerts from one-day spikes without a trend. Off: alerts on price alone.

You choose undefined–undefined .

Trend size

How big the 5-session NIFTY move must be for the trend check above.

Higher: needs a clearer trend, fewer alerts. Lower: a smaller drift is enough.

You choose 0.1–2 % over 5 sessions.

Paper trading

How paper fills are priced.

Paper exit slippage

Paper exits fill at the mid price moved against you by this % (buys higher, sells lower). Paper entries fill at the ask for sells and the bid for buys, exactly as ZTEN's paper mode.

Higher: more cautious paper results. Lower: paper P&L closer to the mid price.

You choose 0–5 % of mid.

Fixed rules

Entry time

Each round rebuilds the trade from that moment's prices and runs every entry rule again. A round whose rules fail is skipped without an alert. Each offer stays open 15 minutes. Skip passes on that round only; Skip for the day ends the day's rounds, and so does accepting one. Nothing is placed unless you accept, or you turned on paper auto-accept, which takes the first round that passes.

Expiry

Each entry uses the NIFTY weekly expiry in the week after next (Tuesday; an earlier day if Tuesday is a holiday). So every trade starts 8 to 14 days from expiry.

Expiry-day exit

Trades expiring today are closed at 15:10, ZTEN's own expiry exit, except legs under the 'let expire' price. That morning you get a notice for each expiring trade, and at 14:45 an alert if a short strike is within 0.5% of NIFTY or past it, so you can exit that side first.

Underlying

DICS trades only NIFTY.

Lot size

One lot = 65 units of each leg. P&L in points × 65 = ₹ per lot.

Strike rounding

50-point strikes are skipped because they trade thinly.

Leg order

Entry buys the two long hedges before selling the shorts, so a short is never open without its hedge. Exits buy back the shorts before selling the hedges.