Risk Management

What Risk Management does

Risk Management lets you set a simple safety limit for each broker account — a maximum daily loss or a profit target. If the account crosses that limit during the trading day, AutoTrader Web emails you an alert so you can decide what to do — or, if you turn it on, squares off your positions for you automatically. You set the limit, you choose what happens when it is crossed, and you stay in control.

Measure on all positions or only open trades

You can choose what your daily loss and profit target look at:

• All positions — the profit or loss from trades you have already closed today, plus your open trades. This is the default.
• Only open positions — your open trades only.

Set one choice as your default for every account, and change it for any single account. The Risk Management guide explains it with a worked example.

Alerts by default, automatic square-off if you want it

By default, Risk Management only alerts you — you get the warning by email and choose what to do. If you want, you can turn on automatic square-off, so exit orders are placed for you the moment a limit is hit. You turn it on yourself: you review and agree to the terms first, pick what should happen for each account, and can switch any account back to alerts-only at any time.

We suggest you start on alerts-only, confirm the alerts reach you and match your broker for a few days, and only then turn on automatic square-off. The profit and loss that drives your limits is worked out from your broker’s position data (your quantities and average prices) and live prices, which are usually reliable but can occasionally be delayed or wrong — so it is worth checking the alerts are correct before you let the software act for you.

If you turn on automatic square-off, we also keep you informed at both steps — we email you before (when your account nears about 80% of a limit, so you can check our number and step in if it looks wrong) and after (a report once it is squared off, with your booked profit or loss and the broker’s reason for any position that could not be closed). You can also turn risk management off for all your accounts at once with a master switch. You stay in control, and you can change or remove a limit at any time.

When you turn on automatic square-off, you pick what happens for each account: square off everything, square off and block new entries, or block new entries only. “Square off everything” does not lock you out — you can trade again after. What happens on your next trade then depends on how you measure your profit and loss: with only open positions, each new trade is protected again; with all positions, we square off once for the day. The Risk Management guide explains all of this with examples.

Ready to set one up? See the Risk Management guide.