Export to tradeSteward (Beta)

Export to tradeSteward (Beta) turns the enabled strategies in a Cashflow Engine portfolio into a ZIP package that tradeSteward can import. This guide starts with a new tradeSteward account and ends at the two controls that can allow imported bots to place real orders.

tradeSteward is external software — not part of Cashflow Engine. We do not build, own, or control it, and we earn no commission from this export. This workflow uses bots in your own tradeSteward account. It does not use Group Shared Bots and has no connection to any trading group that may appear in your tradeSteward navigation.

Keep every bot disabled until the final audit is complete. Importing a file creates bot settings. Enabling a bot and enabling tradeSteward's master autotrading control can allow it to place real orders in the selected brokerage account.

The workflow in one minute

1. Link your brokerage account to tradeSteward.
2. Create the disabled Base Settings Bots named in the ZIP's README file.
3. Build and stress-test the portfolio in Cashflow Engine.
4. Choose Export → Export to tradeSteward (Beta) and download the ZIP.
5. Unzip it and import every TXT file separately with its listed base bot.
6. Add the required exponential moving average (EMA) filter to every Multiple Entry Trend Following (METF) bot.
7. Re-open and verify every bot while it remains disabled.
8. Only then decide whether to enable an individual bot and tradeSteward's master autotrading control.

The setup in steps 1 and 2 is normally one-time work. Steps 3–8 are the repeat workflow for each portfolio export.

Before the first export: link your broker

tradeSteward bots execute in a brokerage account connected to tradeSteward; Cashflow Engine never receives that broker connection.

In tradeSteward:

1. Open the account menu — the user icon in the top navigation.
2. Choose Manage Linked Brokers.
3. Click Add/Update Brokerage Link.
4. Choose your broker and complete the authorization on the broker's own page.
5. Back in tradeSteward, make sure the intended account's Enabled switch is on and its Link Status is healthy.

tradeSteward currently documents connections for Charles Schwab, tastytrade, Tradier, and TradeStation. Follow its current Link a Brokerage Account guide for broker-specific requirements. Its first-bot guide also explains the difference between tracking plans and plans that allow autotrading.

Before the first export: create local base bots

tradeSteward's importer combines two ingredients:

• the TXT file from Cashflow Engine, which defines the strategy-specific values; and
• an existing Base Settings Bot, which supplies any setting not present in the file.

This is why a brand-new account cannot import the first file immediately. It needs at least the exact disabled base bot named in that file's README entry. The bases are local to your account; no shared group bot is required.

Create the first base

Open Bots → Create Bot. Create a valid, disabled SPX vertical-spread bot using the following verified baseline. The exact premium, width, quantity, entry time, stop percentage, and timed exit are overwritten by the import file, but the surrounding behavior comes from the base.

For a concrete placeholder, use one short call targeted at a $3.00 premium, one long call at a 150-point Vertical Width, Quantity 1, a one-minute entry window, and a 95% Percent Loss stop. The import file replaces those values. Press Create Bot, leave it disabled, and re-open it once to make sure it saved.

If CFE Portfolio Imports (Beta) does not exist in Strategy Assignment, choose Create New Strategy and create it. This label is only for organizing the imported bots and their reporting.

Use the exact base names

The export can produce up to eight condition-specific TXT batches. You only need the bases named in the current ZIP's README, but creating all eight once makes later portfolio imports faster.

Use Copy to New Bot to duplicate the first base, rename each copy exactly, and keep every copy disabled. The METF base name records the condition class, but the importer does not copy that base bot's Entry Filters. The EMA still has to be added to each imported METF bot after import.

tradeSteward's own Create a Bot guide explains every part of the bot form.

Export the portfolio from Cashflow Engine

Open the finished portfolio in the Portfolio Builder. Check the contract quantity and enabled/disabled state of every strategy, because the execution export includes enabled strategies only.

Open Export and choose Export to tradeSteward (Beta).

The Before you export window shows:

• how many bots and condition batches will be written;
• the exact Base Settings Bot for every batch;
• every required METF EMA step; and
• any strategies that cannot be represented and will be skipped.

Read the skip list. A clean download does not mean that every portfolio row was converted. The current beta supports decodable MEIC, ratio, and METF strategies; unsupported or undecodable custom strategies are listed and not converted.

Choose Confirm & export ZIP. The downloaded package contains:

• one ..._README.txt manifest;
• one TXT file for each condition batch present in the portfolio; and
• no executable program — the files are plain text bot definitions.

Keep the README open during import. It is the source of truth for which file uses which base and which METF condition has to be added later.

Why one portfolio becomes several files

tradeSteward's TXT importer cannot encode every Cashflow Engine condition. The export therefore separates strategies by condition so a wrong base or wrong EMA cannot silently spread across the whole portfolio.

• Each MEIC becomes two independently stopped bots: one call credit spread and one put credit spread.
• Each ratio strategy becomes its large spread plus the smaller opposite-side spread at the exported quantity ratio.
• Each METF side goes into the file for its exact EMA pair and direction.
• Every bot receives a one-minute entry window. If it cannot fill in that window, it skips the day rather than entering late.
• Every exported bot uses 0 DTE SPX, the selected fixed quantity, the strategy's premium and width, a Percent Loss stop grouped by vertical, and a 3:55pm timed exit.

This is a one-way execution hand-off. Keep a Native Engine Portfolio file if you also need a portfolio that can be imported back into Cashflow Engine.

Import each TXT file separately

In tradeSteward, open Bots → Import Bots. Start with the first file listed in the README.

1. Select the listed base

Click Select Base Settings Bot, search for CFE, and choose the exact base named next to that TXT file in the README. Do not substitute another condition's base.

Click the blue Select Base Settings Bot button to open Template Upload.

2. Set the non-destructive import options

Use these values:

Leave Bot Name Prepend empty. tradeSteward rejects final bot names longer than 40 characters, and Cashflow Engine's strategy-based names already use that space.

Click Browse, choose the TXT file, then click Import Bots. Review any Import Errors. Do not use a bulk control to enable the new bots.

Repeat the complete process for every TXT file in the ZIP. tradeSteward's import guide states that one submission can create up to 50 bots. A batch above that limit must be split into separate submissions; the current beta exporter does not do that split automatically.

Confirm that every imported bot is disabled

Open Bots → View Bots and search for the imported strategy name. Check both the Enabled switch and the Status column. Every new bot should show Disabled.

If any imported bot is enabled, disable it before editing or reviewing the batch.

Required for METF: add the EMA filter manually

Multiple Entry Trend Following (METF) is the important compatibility limit. The tradeSteward TXT format has no field for the required moving-average crossover, and live round-trip testing confirmed that Entry Filters are not inherited from the selected Base Settings Bot.

An imported METF bot is therefore not strategy-equivalent yet. Without the manual filter it can enter regardless of trend.

For every bot in a METF TXT batch:

1. Open Edit Bot while Bot Status remains Disabled.
2. Scroll to Trade Conditions and enable Entry Filters.
3. Under Underlying Entry Filters, enable Open When Underlying Moving Average Crossover.
4. Set Moving Average Type: Exponential.
5. Set Period Type: Minute and Period Length: 1.
6. Enter Periods in Moving Average 1 and Periods in Moving Average 2 exactly as the README states.
7. Set Open Trade When to Above or Below exactly as the README states.
8. Save with Update Bot.
9. Re-open the bot and verify the saved values before moving to the next one.

Use this matrix if you need to cross-check the README:

MEIC and ratio bots intentionally have no EMA entry filter.

Audit every bot before enabling anything

Re-open every imported bot and compare it with the Cashflow Engine portfolio and README. A useful audit covers all of these fields:

• Bot Identification: correct bot name, correct Trading Account, correct Strategy Assignment, Bot Status disabled.
• Structure: SPX, two legs, correct call or put side, one short and one protective long leg, 0 DTE.
• Strike targets: short leg uses Premium; long leg uses Vertical Width; both values match the strategy.
• Sizing: fixed Quantity matches the Portfolio Builder contract count. A ratio's small side can have a different quantity by design.
• Schedule: correct start time, one-minute end time, Monday through Friday.
• Exit: Timed Exit enabled at 0 DTE and 3:55pm; Profit Target disabled.
• Stop: Percent Loss matches the strategy, Stop Controller is Bot Algo, and grouping is Verticals.
• Conditions: METF has the exact exponential one-minute EMA condition; MEIC and ratio do not.

tradeSteward's Test Run shows which strikes the current settings would pick without placing an order. Run Backtick sends the configuration to its historical tester. These checks do not replace the field-by-field audit, but they can expose a wrong side, premium, width, or quantity before live trading.

Start trading: understand the two switches

tradeSteward uses two separate live controls:

1. the individual bot's Enabled state; and
2. the account-wide master autotrading state shown in the Bots menu.

Both must be enabled before a bot can enter. The linked brokerage account must also be enabled and healthy, and the current day and time must be inside the bot's entry schedule.

The screenshot deliberately remains Disabled. Changing Bot Status to Enabled and pressing Update Bot can arm that bot. Enabling master autotrading can arm every other enabled bot in the account too, so inspect the full View Bots list first — not only the imported batch.

The lowest-risk operational sequence is:

1. keep master autotrading paused while reviewing;
2. run Test Run and Backtick;
3. verify the intended broker account, buying power, options permissions, market data, timezone, quantity, entry time, and every stop/exit;
4. enable only the bot or bots you deliberately intend to run; and
5. enable master autotrading only after confirming that no other enabled bot will trade unexpectedly.

Once both controls are on, the bot can place real orders at its next eligible entry window. tradeSteward's first-bot guide and Trading Dashboard guide cover the live status, activity feed, open positions, and master pause control. Pausing autotrading stops new entries; it does not by itself close positions that are already open.

What this beta cannot guarantee

• tradeSteward is a separate product and can change its importer or bot behavior independently.
• The TXT format cannot carry METF EMA conditions. They must be added and verified manually after every import.
• A selected base bot does not transfer Entry Filters to imported bots.
• Unsupported or undecodable strategy families are skipped and listed rather than approximated.
• Final bot names are limited to 40 characters, so Bot Name Prepend must remain empty.
• tradeSteward limits one import submission to 50 bots; the current exporter does not automatically split a larger condition batch.
• A successful import proves that the file was accepted, not that the settings are economically suitable or identical to your intent.
• Backtested and live fills can differ. Cashflow Engine does not decide whether a user should enable live trading.

Repeat workflow for the next portfolio

After the one-time broker and base-bot setup, the normal loop is shorter:

1. finish and stress-test the portfolio in Cashflow Engine;
2. export the tradeSteward Beta ZIP;
3. read the README and import each TXT with its exact base;
4. add and verify every METF EMA condition;
5. audit every imported bot while disabled; and
6. make a separate, deliberate decision about the individual and master live controls.

Related pages

• Exports & Integrations overview
• Portfolio Builder overview
• Stress Testing — Monte Carlo
• Excel & Native Portfolio exports
• Export to OptionsApp