VIX Kill Switch Level
What it does
When the VIX index rises above this level, ACondor immediately halts all new entries for the remainder of the session. Existing positions continue to be managed. The kill switch only blocks new trades. The VIX level is checked at the start of each cycle. This is a circuit breaker, not an auto-close: the bot never automatically closes open positions into a spike, because closing into extreme vol locks in losses that defined-risk structures may recover from as vol normalizes.
When to change it
The default of 35 corresponds to elevated but not crisis VIX levels. The long-term average is around 19, and levels above 30 have historically coincided with significant market stress events. Lower values (25 to 30) are more conservative. Raising above 40 means the bot may keep entering during genuine market crises.
Safe range
25 (conservative) to 50 (permissive). Values below 20 would halt the bot during normal elevated-vol periods that are actually good for premium selling.
Example
Setting kill_switch_vix_level to 30 means a VIX print of 31 halts new entries for the rest of the day, even if the bot otherwise has open buying power.