The level arrives, the limit order goes in, and nothing happens. The option trades around the order without touching it. Seconds pass. This is a common moment in short-dated trading, and a bad one to start making up rules in.
An unfilled order is information
A limit order fills only at its price or better. If it has not filled, the market has not offered that price. The order may be resting inside the spread where nobody needs to meet it, or the option may have moved away. Either way the market has said no for now.
Three choices
The first is to wait. The order stays where it is. The risk is that price leaves without it and the trade is missed.
The second is to reprice. The limit moves toward the ask. The fill becomes more likely and the entry gets worse. Repeated, this turns into chasing the entry.
The third is to cancel. The trade is not taken. The cost is a missed move if one comes, and nothing if it does not.
What decides between them
Look at the index, not the option. The plan named a level for the entry. If the index is still at that level, the trade still exists, and the only open question is the option’s price. Moving the limit a small step is then a cost of doing business, the same trade at a slightly worse fill. Getting filled at the mid covers how far inside the spread an order can reasonably sit.
If the index has left the level, the planned trade is gone. Paying up now buys a different trade: a worse location, less room to the target and a wider distance to the stop. That trade was never planned, and repricing into it is how a missed entry becomes a poor one.
The forgotten order
An order left resting after the setup has passed is a hazard. Price can come back later, under different conditions, and fill it. The trader then holds a position opened by an old decision. When the reason for an order expires, the order should be cancelled with it. Day and GTC orders explains how long an order lives if nobody cancels it.
Set the rule beforehand
Two numbers settle most of this ahead of time: the highest price the plan allows for the option, and how many times the order may be moved. With those written down, an unfilled order has a procedure. Without them it has a trader’s mood.
A missed trade costs nothing. It is worth writing that on the plan too.