4-Leg Iron Condor on QQQ (Nasdaq-100 ETF) — Alpaca Paper Account P&L, Risk Metrics & Trade Analytics

● Paper Trading ⚖️ Neutral / Non-Directional 📊 Performance Report 📈 Backtests ⚠️ Educational Only

📡 Strategy Overview

This strategy runs a Weekly Iron Condor on QQQ (Nasdaq-100 ETF) via the Alpaca paper-trading API. The Iron Condor is a net-credit, defined-risk, non-directional options strategy. Premium is collected up-front; the trade is profitable when QQQ remains within the short-strike range through expiry.

The condor is opened every Monday morning (9:40 ET) and closed every Thursday afternoon (15:45 ET), targeting the following Friday's weekly expiry. All performance metrics are scoped exclusively to QQQ option legs (OCC symbols matching QQQ[date][CP][strike]).

4-Leg Condor Construction

LEG SIDE STRIKE PREMIUM
Long Put Buy to open ATM − shortSpread − wingWidth PAY (outer hedge)
Short Put Sell to open ATM − shortSpread COLLECT
Short Call Sell to open ATM + shortSpread COLLECT
Long Call Buy to open ATM + shortSpread + wingWidth PAY (outer hedge)
Net Credit = shortPut_mid + shortCall_mid − longPut_mid − longCall_mid

⚠️ Options Permission Requirements (Alpaca)

This strategy requires Level 3 (Spreads) options approval on each Alpaca account. Level 3 allows multi-leg defined-risk spreads (iron butterflies, iron condors, verticals, etc.). Accounts must also be margin-enabled.

Apply via: Alpaca Dashboard → Account → Trading → Options Trading → Level 3.