A chain is QuantWheel's grouping of related trades — a cash-secured put, its rolls, the eventual assignment, and any covered calls sold against the resulting shares, all treated as one multi-step sequence. The Open Chains section on the Open Positions page shows every in-progress chain, with the full running P&L across all legs.
Open Chains is how you track complex in-progress wheel cycles without losing the thread. A single chain can span months, include 10+ transactions, and produce a running P&L that would be nearly impossible to calculate manually.
Before you start
Required:
- QuantWheel PRO or an active $1 trial.
- At least one open multi-step position — typically a CSP that's been rolled, an assigned position with covered calls against it, or a long stock position with short calls covering it.
Time to complete: 5 minutes
What's on the screen
1. Section header
Above the chains list, a brief descriptor reads "Track your rolling options strategies and multi-leg positions". This orients the reader — the section is distinct from the one-row-per-contract Open Positions table above it.
2. Per-chain display
Each chain is shown as its own block with several labeled sections:
Header line — ticker, strategy name (e.g., "Cash-Secured Put" or "Covered Call Chain"), and context like "Started {date} · Nd in trade · N transactions". This tells you at a glance how old the chain is and how many trades have been involved.
KEEPS OPEN — a breakdown of which legs of the chain are still open, shown as labeled components. For a typical rolled CSP, this would be the current open short put with its current strike and expiration. For a more complex multi-leg structure, it might show multiple open contracts with their roles labeled.
Running P&L breakdown — three numbers summed into a total:
- Realized — net P&L from any legs that have already closed (e.g., prior rolls, expired options along the way)
- Unrealized — current mark-to-market P&L on the still-open legs
- Locked In — premium collected on the open legs that the market can't take back (you collected it at open; even if the legs close unfavorably, this cash is already in your account)
The sum of the three is the total current state of the chain. Positive means the chain is currently profitable across all its legs. Negative means it's currently underwater.
📸 SCREENSHOT: track-open-chains-step-1.png
How to use Open Chains
Quick health check on rolling positions
Scan Open Chains weekly. Any chain where Total (Realized + Unrealized + Locked In) is strongly negative deserves attention — the cycle has been costing you money, and continuing to roll may be compounding the loss. Consider letting the current position expire, accepting assignment, or closing the chain outright.
Chains that are strongly positive are the opposite — the wheel is working. Keep doing what you're doing.
Deciding whether to roll or accept assignment
When a CSP goes in the money, the question is usually "roll to a later expiration, or let it assign?" Open Chains helps answer this. If the existing chain has high Locked In premium already, assignment-and-covered-calls is a low-risk path forward — your Real Cost is already well below the strike, so a covered call at any reasonable strike makes money. If Locked In is small (you just opened the position), rolling is more defensive because the cushion doesn't exist yet.
Identifying over-rolled positions
A chain with 5+ rolls on the same underlying in 2–3 months is often a sign you're deferring a loss that the market isn't going to let you recover from. The transaction count in the header makes this easy to spot. Not all over-rolled chains are bad, but they deserve scrutiny — you're spending decision-time and gamma risk to postpone an outcome.
Tracing a chain's history
The chain-level Journal isn't the same as the Transactions tab. If you want line-by-line detail on what's inside a given chain, the Per-Ticker tab and its row expansion show chains-per-ticker with fuller history. Open Chains is the summary view; Per-Ticker is the detail view.
📸 SCREENSHOT: track-open-chains-step-2.png
Common issues
I have rolling positions but Open Chains is empty.
Three possibilities:
- QuantWheel hasn't identified the sequence as a chain yet. Chains require at least one linked action (roll, assignment, covered call) to form. A single open CSP by itself is just an open position, not a chain.
- The rolls happened before the broker sync period. Historical reconstruction from broker data isn't always perfect. Chains going forward will populate normally.
- If you recently rolled and the chain doesn't show up within 10 minutes of the roll, the broker sync may not have captured the roll's linkage. Click Resync on Profit View to force re-evaluation.
What's the difference between Realized and Locked In?
Realized is P&L from legs that have fully closed — money that's actually landed in the account from completed trades. Locked In is premium collected on still-open positions — money that's in your account but attached to a contract that could still close unfavorably. Both are cash, but Realized is "fully accounted for"; Locked In is "yours unless something reverses."
Unrealized is negative but Total is positive. Can I trust that?
Yes. Locked In premium frequently covers negative Unrealized on open legs. That's the whole point of collecting premium upfront — you're cushioned against some adverse price movement. When Locked In + Realized exceeds Unrealized's negative, the chain is still in the green overall.
A chain was closed but still shows in Open Chains.
Closed chains should move out of Open Chains within a sync cycle. If a visibly-closed chain lingers, it usually indicates the closing transaction didn't sync — check Trades tab for the closing trade. If it's missing, see Broker sync failed.
Can I manually create a chain?
Not today. Chains are formed automatically from the transaction sequence. Manually-added trades via +Add Manual on Open Positions will appear as standalone positions, not chains.
Related
Risk disclaimer: Options trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance does not guarantee future results. This content is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice.