Rolling an Iron Condor

Unlike other 2-legged or fewer options strategies, rolling an iron condor requires an extra step. To achieve a roll, you need to perform two separate orders. Your two orders would consist of rolling the call side in one order ticket and the put side in another order ticket. Rolling the call side or put side is a 4-legged order—the maximum.

Are you wondering why you only see Close Order when you select all 4-legs of your iron condor? It is not a bug; it is by design. An order ticket can only contain 4 legs. Rolling an iron condor would consist of 8 legs since rolling consists of a closing order (4 legs) and an opening order (4 legs). Additionally, to get a fill, there has to be someone on the other side to take it off as a whole. That said, creating an 8-legged order could be challenging to unload.

Are you looking to roll up your puts or roll down your calls in the same expiration instead? Then please click here.

How to roll an Iron Condor

Let’s learn how to roll an iron condor on the tastytrade desktop platform. The same logic also applies to the web-based platform or the mobile platform.

1. Expand your position in the Positions tab. You achieve this by clicking the Expand button or just by clicking the Symbol Group of the underlying. In the example below, we are rolling an AAPL iron condor.
   
2. Remember, we need to perform two orders to roll an iron condor. Below, we are rolling the call side first. Highlight your short call spread by single-clicking each leg. Highlighting is indicated with a lighter shade of gray. Once both legs are highlighted, right-click anywhere within the highlighted area to Quick Roll or Roll. In the illustration below we are selecting Roll and selecting the November Monthly Expiration (11/17/17). To learn more about Quick Roll versus Roll click here.
   
3. You will be directed to the Trade tab with the order ticket populated after selecting the expiration you want to roll into. If the same strikes are available in the selected expiration date then you’ll see the rolling order populate into the selected expiration. Here, you’ll also have the opportunity to adjust the price of the roll and adjust your strikes (if desired).
   
   *Please note: Not all expiration weeks will have the same strikes. If the same strikes do not exist in the back date then the platform will select the closest strike possible. You still have an opportunity to adjust your strikes.
   Click “Review and Send” to review your order and when you are ready to ship the order and make it live click “Send Order” in the next window.
4. To roll the put side, repeat steps 1-3, but select the put side instead.

To learn more about iron condors, please visit our friends at tastylive by clicking here (Please note: You are leaving tastytrade.com and heading to tastylive.com).