How to Read the Positions Table: 10 Columns That Show What Your Trade Is Doing
Once you open a position, the positions table is that trade's check-up sheet: 10 columns, each answering one question — what this trade is, what it is worth now, how far it is from breakeven, and whether it is time to get out. Read these 10 columns and you will not need to open the order ticket every time, or remember to look only after the trade is already losing.
What each of the 10 columns means
Direction: read this column first to set the direction — a single leg reads like buy call or sell put, while a combo reads as its strategy name, for example bull put spread; get the direction wrong and every number after it reads backwards.
Strike and expiry: a single leg shows one strike, a combo shows the strikes of its two or four legs; expiry is normally today (0DTE), and on weekends or after the close the table shows the next trading day instead.
Opened at and quantity: opened at is Eastern Time, followed by "held X min"; quantity is how many contracts this trade opened, and every profit and loss is multiplied by it.
Entry price: for a single leg it is the premium you paid or received, for a combo it is the net premium — a net credit of $0.60, for example, shows as -0.60; once set, the entry price never changes, and every profit and loss is measured from it.
How the mid-value estimate is calculated
The mid-value estimate is what the trade is worth now: it is priced at the mid, so 1 contract of the 7600 call at a mid of $2.50 is worth $250; this cell refreshes with the delayed quotes, about every 15 minutes.
Net profit and loss already subtracts the opening fee: buying 1 contract of the 7600 call costs $200 plus a $0.65 fee, so at a mid of $2.50 the net gain is (2.50 − 2.00) × 100 − 0.65 = $49.35.
The percentage in brackets is net profit and loss as a share of the capital put in: 49.35 ÷ (200 + 0.65) = 24.6%; for a long leg the base is premium plus fee, for a short leg or a combo the base is the margin locked up.
The estimate is not the closing price: when you close, a long leg sells at the bid and a short leg buys back at the ask, and one more fee is charged, so the cash you actually get is a little less than the mid-value estimate — do not use the estimate as the closing price.
How to read the breakeven and the exit hint
A single leg's breakeven is net of fees: buying 1 contract of the 7600 call breaks even at 7600 + 2.00 + 0.013 = 7602.01, where 0.013 is the $1.30 round-trip fee spread over one point; a settlement at 7602.01 is exactly flat, and this trade can lose at most $201.30.
A combo's breakeven is premium only: a bull put spread that sells the 7550 put and buys the 7500 put collects $0.60 net, so its breakeven is 7550 − 0.60 = 7549.40 — this number does not yet subtract fees, so it is not the same kind of number as a single leg's net breakeven.
The exit hint cell always shows your exit plan: while nothing has triggered it shows the take-profit, stop-loss, or time condition you wrote, in grey; once triggered it turns into a red alert; if you wrote no plan it reads "No exit conditions written".
The action cell has only one button, Close: when the chain has no quote for that position the button is greyed out, and clicking it does nothing — wait for the quotes to refresh instead of clicking again and again.
Three things people often misread
"No open positions" is not an error: the table shows only this line when you hold nothing, adds one row per trade once you open, and goes back to this line when you close the last one.
When a strike is not in the chain, the mid cell shows "—": the expiry has rolled or the strike is off the chain, so no value can be calculated — that does not mean the trade went to zero; wait for the new chain and look again.
Read the color, not just the number, of the percentage: gains are green and losses are red; the same trade's mid-value estimate moves, and the percentage moves with it, so do not treat the number from the moment you opened as the number now.
"Held X min" is only counted within the same day: 0DTE expires today, so how long you have held is visible at a glance; a position left over from an earlier day shows only its opening time, with no minutes invented.
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.