Most traders talk about ’tight stops’ and ’locking in profits,’ but today’s trade was about the opposite: pure mechanical commitment. The bot I used for this afternoon session is named ‘2:00pm - Ironfly - $40 width - No Profit & No Stoploss.’ It’s a strategy designed to let the math play out fully until the final minutes of the market. No flinching, no early exits, just a bet on the 7130 pin.
The Setup: Aiming for 7130 📍
At 2:00 PM, the market was showing some stability, so the bot sold the At-The-Money (ATM) straddle and bought $40 wide wings to define the risk.
- Bot Name: 2:00pm - Ironfly - $40 width - No Profit & No Stoploss
- Short Strikes: 7130 Call / 7130 Put
- Width: $40 wings (7170 / 7090)
- Net Credit: $20.37 ($2,037.50 total)
- Exit Rule: 15:59 PM (Time Limit)
Surviving the Drawdown 📉
Because this bot has no stop loss, it doesn’t matter how far SPX drifts in the middle of the afternoon. As long as the account can handle the margin, we stay in.
At 14:09 PM, we saw a perfect example of why this matters. SPX dropped to $7112.08, pushing the trade to a -$245.00 (-12.0%) drawdown. In a traditional setup with a tight stop, this trade would have been dead. Instead, the bot sat through the red, waiting for the afternoon drift back toward the strikes.
The Afternoon Gravity ⏳
As the trading day wound down, the ‘gravity’ of the 7130 strike began to take over. This is where Theta (Time Decay) turns into a profit engine for Iron Flies.
| Time (ET) | SPX Price | P/L (%) | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14:00 | $7128.79 | 0.0% | Entry 🏁 |
| 14:32 | $7111.46 | -5.9% | Staying the course 🧘 |
| 15:00 | $7129.04 | +32.3% | The drift begins |
| 15:30 | $7131.88 | +58.3% | Near the sweet spot |
| 15:59 | $7129.60 | +90.1% | Final Exit 🏁 |
The Result: A 90% Home Run 💰
The bot closed the trade at 15:59 PM just as the market was shutting down. SPX landed at $7129.60—a mere 0.40 points away from our 7130 short strikes.
By removing the stop loss and profit target, we gave the trade the maximum possible time to ‘pin.’ The result was a $1,835.00 profit, proving that sometimes, the best way to trade is to stay out of the bot’s way.
Total P&L: +$1,835.00 (90.04%) Duration: 1 Hour 59 Minutes
Disclaimer: This log is for sharing my mechanical trading experience. 0DTE trading involves high risk.