1. Catch the bad trades before you place them

Every recommendation looks good on paper. Claude pulls the live data and pressure-tests each leg: is the short put premium rich relative to where the stock actually trades today? Has the stock drifted outside the range you'd be selling? Is the risk/reward actually worth it?

Cost of skipping this: your max loss on a single iron condor can be 3–4x the credit you collect.

2. Enter only when the premium is historically rich

The single biggest edge in iron condors is timing. Use the get_price_history tool to ask Claude whether the current short-leg premium is high or low compared to where it traded over the last year. Sweep the trade when it's rich, pass when it's cheap.

This is the difference between collecting 4.0 instead of 2.5 on the same structure — a ~60% lift in edge on identical risk.

3. Verify live pricing and Greeks before you click

Ask Claude to walk each of the four legs with live bid/ask, implied volatility, delta, and open interest (get_options_chain). If a leg's IV is screaming or the spread is wide, Claude will tell you the fill is going to hurt — before it does.

4. Hold your rules — even when the market is exciting

Tell Claude your filters once and it enforces them on every trade: "Only show me trades with at least 3:1 risk/reward, probability of profit above 60%, over a stock that's below 35 IV." No more chasing the shiny trade that breaks your own rules.

5. Learn what actually worked — and repeat it

The performance report (get_performance_report) shows how every past recommendation cohort actually settled, week by week to expiry. Have Claude audit the matrix and tell you which setups historically collected premium and which blew up, so your next trade is informed by real outcomes, not vibes.

Step 1 — Get your API key

1. Make sure you're on the Pro plan.
2. Go to your Profile page.
3. Scroll to Claude MCP Access and click Generate / Rotate API Key.
4. Copy the key — it's shown only once. Treat it like a password.

Step 2 — Connect Claude Code

Open (or create) ~/.claude/settings.json, add the mcpServers block, and paste in your key:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ironcondorbuddy": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://ironcondorbuddy.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY_HERE" }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Code. Test it with: "Use ironcondorbuddy to list the current trades and vet the best risk/reward setup."

Step 3 — (Alternative) Connect Claude Desktop

Open claude_desktop_config.json (Claude → Settings → Developer → Edit Config) and add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ironcondorbuddy": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://ironcondorbuddy.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY_HERE" }
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop and confirm ironcondorbuddy shows up in the tools list (⚡ icon).

Step 4 — Make it work for you

Try these prompts:

• "Vet the highest probability-of-profit trade. Show me its full structure, live market context, and give me a go/no-go with reasons."
• "For the AAPL trade, check the short put premium against its last-year history. Is this a good week to sell it?"
• "Walk the options chain for the META trade. Are any legs priced badly, or are the spreads too wide to enter?"
• "Audit the performance report and tell me which recommendation cohorts actually made money at expiry."

You can save your own filter rules ("never show me trades under 3:1 risk/reward") in your Claude project instructions so they're applied to every trade automatically.

• Can Claude place trades for me? No. MCP access is read-only — it can fetch data and analyze, never execute. You're always in control of the order ticket.
• Does this cost extra per call? No. It's included with your Pro plan. Your AI provider (e.g., Claude) has its own usage costs.
• Is my key safe? Keys are stored hashed, scoped to your account, work only on the Pro plan, and can be revoked anytime from your Profile page. Share it with no one.
• I clicked everything but Claude can't connect. Make sure you're on Pro, the key was generated from your Profile, and you restarted Claude after editing the config.
• Which tickers/strategies does it cover? Everything Iron Condor Buddy recommends — the full daily recommendation list, not the free-tier half.