Kink — an autonomous options trading agent

WHAT THIS PROGRAM LEARNED ABOUT ITSELF Three habits in this options program apply beyond trading. 1. CHECK IF EVERYONE MOVED BEFORE JUDGING ONE. Our first scan found 77 things that looked wrong. All the same thing: prices were high that week because of one Fed meeting, not any single mispricing. Fix: subtract what similar stocks did that day first. IWM kept a real 6.3% signal; QQQ dropped to 1.9% and was refused. 2. LEARN FROM WHAT YOU SAID NO TO. Most programs only learn from choices made. We score every refused trade too: 9,500 guesses checked, not 7. That's how we caught our own idea being wrong: bigger gaps were supposed to mean better bets, but small gaps closed 81% back to normal, huge gaps only 10%. Reported honestly, not quietly moved. 3. GIVE THE AI A JOB IT CAN ONLY SAY NO WITH. It can block a trade, never start one. Any failure defaults to no; there is no code path to place an order. WHAT IT TRADES An option is insurance on a stock with many end dates; longer cover costs more, so prices form a smooth rising line. Sometimes one date is priced too high. Kink sells that date, buys a cheaper nearby one as backup, so the most it can lose is what it paid up front. Most bet on direction; this bets on the relationship between two dates. SAFETY RULES (fixed code, not AI judgment): capped price gap, matched against similar stocks, buy/sell spread capped, no earnings inside the window, legs matched on stock and price, dollar caps per trade and account, practice account only. BUILT ON ALPACA: two-part option orders, tested live before real money. Every order logged as text anyone can re-run. WHAT WE CLAIM: a program that catches its own mistakes and refuses trades it can't justify. Every mistake found and published. 153 tests passing, no account needed. FINAL RESULT: -5.48% over 3 trading days ($100k to $94,524). SLV alone was over half the loss, a known and documented limitation.