If you already held positions at your brokerage before deploying a system, you can bring them under that system's management.
Why you'd do this
By default, a system only manages trades it opened. Positions that existed beforehand are invisible to it — they won't be closed at your profit targets or stop losses, and they won't appear in your trade history or income figures.
Importing hands them over, so the system manages them like its own.
How to import
Open the system.
Go to System Settings.
Choose Import existing trades.
Wait while your current broker positions load.
Tick the positions you want to import.
For long stock on Wheel Paycheck, choose how many shares to import if more than one lot size is available.
Confirm.
You'll see how many were imported. They then appear in your open trades.
Importing shares you already own
You can import share lots of 100 or more, not just open option contracts. This matters for Wheel Paycheck: if you already hold shares of an approved symbol, importing them lets the system start selling covered calls against those shares instead of leaving them idle.
A few things to know:
100 shares is the floor. One option contract covers 100 shares, so a lot smaller than that can't be written against. Odd lots aren't offered for import.
You choose the size in whole hundreds. If you hold 250 shares, you can import 100 or 200. If you hold 4,000, you can pick any amount from 100 up to 4,000 in 100-share steps. Use the Shares to import dropdown on each stock row (it appears when more than one lot size is possible).
Leftover shares stay unmanaged. Anything you don't import — including odd lots like the remaining 50 of a 250-share position — stays at the broker under your own control.
Your cost basis comes across with the shares, which matters if you have Don't Sell Call Unless Strike Is Above Entry turned on — the system won't sell a call below that basis.
Imported shares consume your allocation, so they reduce what's available for new cash-secured puts.
Share lots are never auto-imported. Import is always an explicit action you take.
Before you import
Only import positions the system can actually handle. A system will manage imported positions according to its own rules — which may mean closing them sooner or later than you would have. In the case of shares, it means they can be called away.
Think about your allocation too. Imported positions consume capital within it, which reduces what's available for new trades.
Selective importing
You don't have to import everything. Tick only what you want managed and leave the rest under your own control. Selecting nothing does nothing.
If the option isn't there
Not every system supports importing. If you don't see it in System Settings, that system doesn't offer it.
Common problems
"Unable to load broker positions" — we couldn't reach your brokerage. Check the connection on the Brokers page and try again.
"Unable to import trades" — a temporary issue. Retry after a moment.
"No trades were imported" — nothing was selected, or the selected positions weren't eligible.
Your shares aren't listed — most often the lot is under 100 shares, or the symbol isn't on the system's approved list. Brokerage data can also lag, particularly right after a trade.
An expected option position isn't listed — it may not be a type this system can manage, or your brokerage may not be reporting it yet.
Undoing an import
There's no unimport. If you want a position back under your own control, close it through the system or manage it directly at your brokerage.