Getting started

Your first visit

The first time you open the web app at app.smartstrikes.app, a few steps come in this order. Most are needed only once.

1. Sign in with Google. The same button creates your SmartStrikes account the first time. Google only confirms who you are; SmartStrikes never sees your Google password.
2. Agree to the Terms. The Before you start screen links to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Tick the box, which also acknowledges that SmartStrikes is educational software, not investment advice, and tap Agree and continue. Your agreement is recorded with your account, so other browsers don't ask again. You're asked again only if the Terms change.
3. Create a PIN of 6 digits (not all the same). The PIN unlocks the data SmartStrikes keeps encrypted in your browser, and it's needed before SmartStrikes will use your Tastytrade connection. On later visits you just enter it. Privacy and security explains what it protects.
4. Settings sync. If you've used SmartStrikes in another browser, your settings are brought in now. If the servers can't be reached, choose Try again or Continue without syncing.
5. Subscribe. Pick Lite or Pro. Each account gets one free 30-day trial, whichever plan you choose first, and your card isn't charged until the trial ends. Payment happens on Stripe's checkout page; if access doesn't appear when you come back, tap Already subscribed? Refresh.
6. Connect your data, as described below.

After that, each visit is just your PIN, plus Google sign-in if you signed out.

Where your positions and prices come from

SmartStrikes needs two things: your trades, to work out your positions and break-evens, and market prices, to show quotes, option chains and charts.

Pro with Tastytrade

On Pro you can connect your own Tastytrade account. It then supplies live streamed prices and your live account: positions, balances and transactions, kept in sync. The Tastytrade API Login screen asks for two values from a personal OAuth application you create in your Tastytrade account: a Client Secret and a Refresh Token. Tap How do I get these credentials? → for the steps. In short:

1. Open Tastytrade's API access page and create an OAuth Client. Copy its Client Secret straight away; Tastytrade shows it only once.
2. Create a Grant for that client with the read scope only. SmartStrikes never places orders, and it refuses a grant that could. The grant gives you the Refresh Token.
3. Paste both values into SmartStrikes and tap Login.

You do this once. The connection is stored encrypted on the SmartStrikes server, never in your browser, so every browser you sign in to has it. You never give SmartStrikes your Tastytrade password.

Lite, or Pro without Tastytrade

Prices come from your own free Alpaca API key instead. An Alpaca paper account is free and needs only an email; add the key in Settings → Security & account → Market data (Alpaca), where How to get a free key shows the steps. Option prices on an Alpaca key are estimates, which Lite and Pro explains.

Importing broker CSVs

On either plan you can add accounts from Fidelity or Tastytrade transaction-history CSV exports: go to Settings → Analysis → Import Additional Account and tap Import Account. Imported accounts appear in the Analysis tab, beside your live account if you have one. Imports stay in the browser you imported them in and are never synced, so keep your original files. Importing covers updating an import with newer trades.

Lite or Pro?

Both plans analyse the positions you import, with SmartStrikes grades, option chains, charts, the volatility meter, SmartAssist and AI Analysis. Lite runs on your free Alpaca key and doesn't need a brokerage account. Pro adds the Research tab and lets you connect Tastytrade for live data and your live account. You can switch either way later from Settings. Lite and Pro has the full comparison.

The header

The top of the screen stays in place on every tab. It has two parts.

• The account card shows your account and its balances (NetLiq and buying power), quotes for the VIX, SPY, QQQ and DIA (tap one to look at it), a capital allocation gauge, and a Sector Rotation view. On a narrow screen these share a carousel you swipe through.
• The quote row is for the symbol you're looking at: its price and change, bid and ask, a letter grade for how well it suits the wheel, the volatility meter (coloured segments rating option premium), and a small dot that's green while live data is connected. Tap the symbol to search for another one.

At the right end of the quote row, ⓘ opens the symbol's metrics and events, the ? in a speech bubble opens SmartAssist, and ⚙ opens Settings. The quote header explains each part.

The tabs

Below the header is the tab bar:

• Account: your account's details and trading permissions, or on Lite, which plan you're on and the next step.
• Chart: price candles with indicators, the expected-move cone and your tranche break-even bars. See Chart.
• Research (Pro): the Watch List and the Scanner, which ranks stocks for the wheel. See Research.
• Options: the option chain for the current symbol, with highlighted strikes and coloured lanes for your share tranches. See Options.
• Analysis: your wheel history and positions, in views such as Contracts, Tranches and P&L, plus AI Analysis. See Analysis and Tranches.

There is also an experimental Positions tab, a plain list of open positions, which is off unless you turn it on.

Settings

All settings live in one place, behind the ⚙ gear: General, Security & account, Analysis, Research and About. Changes apply as you make them; there's no Save button. Settings walks through each category.