My worst paper bot buys calls on new highs: 41 trades, down $6,529. The best one sells premium. Rewriting the loser to hold shares instead.

Paper money, my own platform, I built it. This is the loser.

My worst paper bot lifetime is a 15-minute new-highs rider that buys calls when a stock breaks to a new high. 41 trades, down $6,529. Buying the breakout with an option and paying theta while it decides.

The bot on the same desk that made the week is a premium seller on SPY and QQQ: 177 trades, 73% winners, up $1,281 realised. Its worst trade was $1,296 though, so nobody's retiring.

What I take from a week of watching both: the breakout idea isn't wrong, the vehicle is. A call on a fresh high is paying for the move and the wait. I'm rewriting it to hold the shares instead and keep the 15-minute rule, then I'll post whether that fixed it or just changed which number is ugly.

Anyone here traded new-high breakouts with calls and made it work? Genuinely asking, the bot hasn't.