How to Place a Combo Order: Two Legs in One Ticket, In and Out as One Trade
At the top of the order ticket there is a strategy dropdown: Single Leg, Vertical Spread, Iron Condor. Pick Vertical Spread or Iron Condor and one submit opens two legs or four legs at the same time — no need to place two separate orders, and no risk of only half the trade filling. This page shows how to fill in the ticket in the simulator, and which numbers to check before you submit. All the numbers below come from the close snapshot of Tuesday, November 11, 2026 ET (spot 7619.38); they are an example, not live quotes.
Pick a strategy first: single leg, vertical spread, or iron condor
A single leg is one trade: buy 1 call or sell 1 put, filling in direction, buy or sell, strike, and quantity; one ticket opens one leg.
A vertical spread is two legs in the same direction — both calls or both puts — one bought and one sold, at different strikes: pick Vertical Spread on the ticket, then fill in the spread direction, the buy leg's strike, and the sell leg's strike; both legs must be calls or both puts.
An iron condor is four legs: sell a call, buy a further-out call, sell a put, buy a further-out put; pick Iron Condor on the ticket and fill in the four strike boxes in order, in one go.
A combo takes only one row in the positions table: in and out as one trade, so closing closes two legs or four legs together — there is no closing just one leg, and no need to close them one by one.
How to fill in a vertical spread: walk through a bull put spread
Right now (close snapshot, Tuesday, November 11, 2026 ET, spot 7619.38): selling the 7600 put at a bid of $26.40 and buying the 7585 put at an ask of $20.20 collects $6.20 a contract in net premium — the sold leg brings in more than the bought leg costs, so this is a credit trade that opens by taking in cash.
On the ticket, pick Vertical Spread, set the spread direction to Put, the buy leg to 7585, the sell leg to 7600, quantity 1; the estimate panel shows a net credit of $620 and a fee of $5.00.
The margin locked is $880: (7600 − 7585 − 6.20) × 100 = 880, a simplified simulated rule, not a real broker margin; cash after opening is 10000 + 620 − 5 = $10,615.
Max profit is $610 and max loss is $890, both net of fees, after both the opening and closing fees; the breakeven of 7593.80 is premium only — 7593.80 = 7600 − 6.20 — so this number does not yet subtract fees, and it is not the same kind of number as a single leg's net breakeven.
How to fill in an iron condor: all four legs in one go
Right now (the same snapshot): selling the 7640 call at a bid of $7.40, buying the 7660 call at an ask of $3.90, selling the 7600 put at a bid of $26.40, and buying the 7580 put at an ask of $18.50 collects $11.40 a contract across the four legs.
On the ticket, pick Iron Condor and fill in the four strikes in order: sell call 7640, buy call 7660, sell put 7600, buy put 7580; the bought legs must sit outside the sold legs, and if you swap them the estimate panel reports the structure as invalid.
The estimate panel shows a net credit of $1,140, a fee of $10.00 ($2.50 a leg per contract, so four legs cost $10.00), margin locked of $860, and cash after opening of $11,130.
Max profit is $1,120 and max loss is $880, both net of fees; the two breakevens are 7588.60 and 7651.40 (7600 − 11.40 and 7640 + 11.40), also premium only, with no fees subtracted.
Check the estimate panel's 7 numbers before you submit
The estimate panel gives 7 numbers in one go: net credit or net debit, fee, max profit, max loss, breakeven (two of them for an iron condor), margin locked, and cash after opening; if any one of them looks wrong, do not submit yet.
One combo opening counts as 1 trade: the 3-trade daily cap counts submits, not legs; you can open at most 3 combo tickets a day, not 3 legs.
When the data is stale, or after 3:30 p.m. ET, the submit button is greyed out and does nothing: wait for the chain to refresh or practice again tomorrow, and do not force an order on stale data.
Quantity runs from 1 to 10 contracts: the bigger the quantity, the bigger the margin locked and the max loss; run the flow once with 1 contract before adding size.
This simulator uses real CBOE option chains delayed about 15 minutes, starts with $10,000 in virtual funds, charges $0.65 per contract per side in fees, and shows P&L net of fees; short-sale margin is a simplified simulated rule at 20% of the strike, not a real broker margin. The simulator is for practicing orders, discipline, and review. It is not investment advice and promises no returns.