← Download 2 October 2026

Setting up Options Sniper

Start to finish, in the order that actually matters. The first two steps depend on your broker and can take a day or more; everything after them takes minutes. Do them first.

1. Two sets of Webull API keys

In the Webull app: Settings → API Management. Create an app key and app secret, and request both:

• Paper app key + secret
• Live app key + secret

You need the live keys even if you only ever paper trade. That is not a typo in the instructions: market‑data entitlement attaches to the live key, so quotes come from the live endpoint while orders route to paper. With paper keys alone the app connects, shows your balance, and cannot price a single contract — which looks like a working app that never trades.

Request the paper keys first if you are asked to choose.

2. Real-time options data, non-display

On the same account, subscribe to real‑time options market data (OPRA) under a non‑display or API agreement.

Non‑display is the one that matters. The ordinary real‑time subscription covers data a human looks at on a screen; data consumed by a program is a separate agreement. Ask for it by name. Get the wrong tier and your keys authenticate, the app connects, and your quotes are still delayed with nothing to tell you.

This is the one prerequisite with no software answer. A short‑dated contract priced between ten cents and a dollar moves a large fraction of its premium in seconds; on delayed data the app is reading the past and pricing orders against quotes that no longer exist. Expect approval to take a day or more, which is why it is step two and not step six.

More detail: what an options bot needs from Webull.

3. Install

Get it from the download page. Windows is an installer; macOS is a disk image for Apple Silicon. On Windows the installer can fetch Google Chrome for you if you do not have it — the research step drives a real browser window, so it is required.

Your settings, trade history and credentials are never overwritten by a reinstall, so updating later is safe.

4. Credentials, then Login

Paste all four keys into the Credentials panel and press Save credentials, then Login.

They go into your operating system's own credential store — Windows Credential Manager or the macOS Keychain — and never into a file. The account line then shows your mode, account id and buying power, which is how you know the connection is real rather than merely accepted.

Leave the mode on PAPER. Switching to LIVE makes you type the word LIVE to confirm, and is refused while armed.

5. Build a Logic Pack

This is the step people do not expect. Options Sniper ships with no strategy at all. Every strategy value in the shipped configuration is empty, and the engine refuses to read one that has not been set rather than reaching for a default. FIRE stays disabled until a strategy exists.

That is deliberate. A default is a recommendation, and a recommendation that ships to everybody is one nobody chose. If a number decides what you risk, you should have picked it.

So: click LOADOUT at the top right, then the PACK BUILDER tab. You get all fifty‑one parameters, grouped:

• Research — the question asked before the bell, the time it runs, and the confidence floor below which it stands down
• Targets — first target, how much of the position leaves there, the runner's target, the trailing stop and the hard stop
• Timing — the time stop, and how long it waits
• Entry — what counts as a bottom and a confirmed reversal, and the liquidity it insists on before buying
• Execution — how the limit order is laddered up chasing a fill
• Contract — expiry range, price range, and the spread limits that reject an untradeable contract
• Sizing — share of buying power, and the dollar and contract caps

Every field states its type and its permitted range, and the ones that are rarely touched are behind the Advanced toggle, so the first pass is shorter than fifty‑one boxes sounds. The values the form starts with are a neutral starting point to edit, not a suggested strategy.

When you are done press Save pack. It writes a .ntlp file wherever you choose — keep it somewhere you will find again, like your Documents folder. You can build several and keep them.

6. Load it, then arm

Still in LOADOUT, on the LOADOUT tab, click Load and pick your .ntlp file. The card fills in and FIRE becomes available.

Press FIRE. It tells you the mode and the next research time and asks you to confirm. After that it is armed and standing by.

Leave it running. Minimise it if you like — it is built to sit in the tray all day. If it is closed, nothing happens: no research, no trade. It does record that it was armed, and on its next launch it reconnects, reloads your pack and re-arms itself, saying so in the activity log. If any of that fails it says NOT ARMED rather than letting you believe otherwise.

What a day looks like once it is armed

1. At your research time it runs the research and vets the answer. Below your confidence floor, or if the answer repeats a name too often, it stands down and does nothing. A day with no trade is a normal outcome.
2. It picks a contract, rejecting anything whose spread or liquidity fails your filters. If nothing passes, it stands down — this also looks like nothing happening.
3. At the open it watches for a bottom, and buys the first confirmed move off it with a laddered limit order.
4. It takes partial profit at your first target, trails the remainder, and closes on your stop or your time stop.
5. One trade, then it is done for the day and waits for tomorrow.

JAM disarms it and closes an open position, mid‑trade if need be, cancelling the working bracket orders first so they cannot fight the closing order. It stops the strategy, not the application.

If something looks wrong

• FIRE is greyed out. No pack is loaded. That is the expected state on a fresh install.
• It connected but will not price anything. Live keys are missing, or market data is not real‑time. See steps 1 and 2.
• Nothing happened at the open. Check the activity log. A stand‑down on confidence, or no contract passing the filters, both look identical to a fault and are neither.
• The 3D panel is blank. Usually another copy of the app, or a leftover browser process, holding the renderer's data folder. Close every copy and reopen.
• Antivirus interrupted the research run. It will fall back to a plain browser automatically. If it keeps happening, allow the app's own driver folder.