Option Alpha Trading Platform Review 2021: Learn About Automated Trading Strategies

By Scott Jeffries

August 12, 2021

What Is Option Alpha?

Option Alpha seeks to empower traders with simple and powerful trading tools. The company provides a platform for traders to research, backtest strategies and trade automatically.

Currently, over 15,000 active bots are running inside the platform. The company boasts over 860 bot templates. The platform’s bots monitor over 24,000 active, open positions.

How Does It Work?

The platform helps traders backtest and automate trading strategies.

You can choose from a library of bot templates to get started. The platform and other traders provide these templates. You can customize the bot for your needs and put it to work.

Here are a few examples:

• Earnings IV Crush
• Range Breakouts
• Pre-Earnings Run

With the interactive interface, you can use simple natural language to tell the bots what to look for, how to enter and exit positions and more.

The bots make data-driven decisions in milliseconds, which reduces the chance for human error and lets you focus on what’s important to you.

Membership

The platform’s new version is currently in the beta stage, with no public pricing information for memberships. You can only access the platform by signing up for the waitlist, which now has more than 250,000 people waiting.

The company will be soon offering at least three subscription plans: Lite, Pro and Elite.

The Lite plan is a starter package for simple trading strategies. You’ll have access to a handful of bots. This plan is perfect for new traders or those with smaller accounts.

The Pro plan is for traders who want to fully automate their trading portfolio. This plan lets you run many bots at once and gives you access to the backtester tool.

The Elite Plan is for experienced traders who need even more bots, power and capital limits. This plan offers the most bots and best automation features.

Features

Option Alpha comes with many excellent features for traders.

Bots

The core feature of the platform is the Bots. You can start with templates or create your own. These bots contain the rules that drive your trading strategy automation. The best part of this feature is that it requires zero coding skills. You will never have to learn how to code anything to use it.

Bots execute faster to market conditions than you ever could. Bots allow you to instantly test your actions to confirm their effectiveness.

Option Alpha has a proprietary technology called SmartPricing that uses timed intervals and adjusts pricing dynamically to maximize your trades. This technology evaluates bid-ask spreads in real-time and doesn’t chase the market.

Flexible risk controls allow you to minimize the amount of risk each bot takes on. You can also set position limits for the day or in total.

Integrations

Option Alpha has partnered with top brokers in the industry to deliver automated trading capabilities. The current integration list is not extensive, but it is growing. Currently, Ameritrade is the only active broker integration. However, agreements have been made with Tradestation and Tradier, with comprehensive integrations coming soon.

The company provides several ways for users to request integrations for other brokers, including Tastyworks, Interactive Brokers and Robinhood. They are hopeful to have integrations with them soon.

Templates

Bot templates are very helpful ways for new users to get started with automated trading. The platform currently offers over 850 templates.

Here are some of the strategies they cover :

• Stocks and options
• Bullish, bearish or neutral
• Hedging
• Active
• Event-based
• Trend or momentum
• Statistical or technical
• Earnings and more

Backtester

The Backtester tool allows you to assess the performance of strategies based on the market’s historical performance. This feature will enable you to test strategies before live trading them.

Here are a few features of the tool:

• Allocation optimization
• Multiple testing durations
• Adjust trade frequency
• Performance ratios
• Win/loss metrics
• Compare multiple scenarios and more

Community

One of the best features of the platform is the active community. Option Alpha provides a place for traders to come together, share ideas and get answers.

Watchlist

The Watchlist enables you to track your favorite stocks and ETFs. You can scan your watchlists for various movements, including momentum, volatility, earnings and more. The platform also has curated watchlists to help you quickly identify opportunities.

University

Option Alpha University is one of the best features of the platform. Here you will find self-paced guided courses to teach you how to trade and use the platform’s automation tools. The company also offers both live and on-demand training sessions. The Handbook acts as a digital encyclopedia for everything related to training.

You will also have access to research, a podcast, a library, and a help center for everything you need to succeed with the platform.

Customer Service

The customer support team is always available to help, and they provide several ways of reaching out for support. You can send them mail, call and leave a message, fill out a web form or report a bug.

Is It Right for You?

Choosing a trading platform is a very personal decision. Is Option Alpha a good fit for you?

If you’re looking for a way to backtest and automate your own trading strategies, Option Alpha is the perfect platform. If you’re looking for someone else to manage your money for you, it might not be a good option.

If you want a platform to help minimize emotional, biased, or reactionary trading decisions, then this is an excellent choice for you.

About the Author

Scott Jeffries

Scott Jeffries is a seasoned technology professional based in Florida. He writes on the topics of business, technology, digital marketing and personal finance. After earning his bachelor’s in Management Information Systems with a minor in Business, Scott spent 15 years working in technology. He's helped startups to Fortune 100 companies bring software products to life. When he's not writing or building software, Scott can be found reading or spending time outside with his kids.