vol-desk

vol-desk sells options premium on seven ETFs: SPY, QQQ, IWM, GLD, TLT, XLE, and HYG. It is based on the idea that implied volatility usually prices above what actually plays out. A deterministic layer computes IV rank, realized volatility, and trend scores to figure out what's even worth trading. From there, an LLM labels the volatility regime for each symbol and picks the actual contracts once a structure is unlocked. It uses credit spreads, iron condors, or occasionally a debit spread when trend is strong and IV is cheap. Every trade is capped risk with no naked legs to minimize loss. Before anything reaches Alpaca, a risk engine runs eight checks: drawdown against the account's high-water mark, position and correlation caps, sizing, cash headroom, DTE window. It can size down, veto, or halt a trade, and a hard drawdown halt has to be cleared manually rather than resetting itself. Alpaca is the source of truth for positions and cash, and a local SQLite database tracks everything else: entry credit, the management plan, IV history, the high-water mark. The whole thing runs as one long-lived process that reconciles state on every boot, so it can restart safely at any time. All trades are made via the Alpaca MCP.