How to Get Market Price for Option Combo (Bull Put Spread) via IB API?

[alexisthedev]

Hi everyone,

I'm experimenting with combo orders using the IB API and had a question regarding pricing.

I'm currently trying to sell Bull Put spreads as follows:

1. Create and qualify the individual option contracts.

2. Construct the combo Contract and define the ComboLegs accordingly.

3. Calculate the premium received and risk using the option premiums and the option strikes.

4. Submit MarketOrder or use the calculated price to place a LimitOrder

I have attempted to qualify the combo Contract to request market data for it, but IB doesn't seem to recognize it as a valid contract (even though submitting a MarketOrder for the non-qualified Contract object worked).

So my questions are:

• Is there a way to retrieve the current market price for a spread (like a Bull Put spread) directly through the API?
• If calculating it manually is the only option, how do you account for IB commissions when computing the total risk and premium received?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[alexisthedev]

Apparently there is no need to qualify it. You just call ib.reqTickers(contract) on the combo contract directly.