Weekly Recap

Three wins, two losses, net -$23. That is a 60% win rate, and it produced a losing week. On the same SPX, in the same five sessions, the 2 PM Iron Fly bot made +$1,614. Different entry time, different bot, very different number on the spreadsheet. This piece is about what 10:30 AM costs you. The Setup The bot is a 0DTE iron condor on SPX. Every trading day at 10:30 AM ET, it sells a 20-delta call and a 20-delta put on same-day options, then buys $100-wide wings on each side for protection. After that it does one of three things: it hits its 35% profit target (close when the position has captured 35% of the credit collected), it hits its 50% stop loss (close when the position has lost 50% of the credit), or it force-exits at 1:00 PM ET if neither has fired. No adjustments. No rolling. No human override. ...

Most 0DTE bots are designed around exits. You set a profit target at 35% or 50%, and the bot takes the money and walks away. You set a stop loss at 50% or 100%, and the bot protects you from the worst. This bot doesn’t have either. The 2:00 PM Iron Fly enters at 2 PM every day, sells the ATM straddle, buys $40 wings for protection, and holds until 3:59 PM no matter what. There is no profit target to trigger early. There is no stop loss to save you. You are fully committed to wherever the market decides to close. ...

Three trading days. Same bot, same rules, same 9:32 AM entry window. By Thursday afternoon the scoreboard read: +$322, +$326, -$618. Net profit for the week: $30. That number deserves to be looked at honestly. Two wins that felt routine. One loss that felt brutal. And at the end of it, a $30 profit that doesn’t even cover lunch. This is what consistent mechanical trading actually looks like — not a highlight reel, not a horror story, just the math running its course across three very different mornings. ...