What happens when you break a trading rule

What it does, every time

Three steps, in this order. It runs a verify-and-retry sequence so it does not give up if the exchange is briefly slow.

• 1. Cancel: every open order on the account is cancelled.
• 2. Close: every open position is market-closed — then verified, and retried if the exchange says otherwise.
• 3. Lock: the account enters a cooldown. Anything you open during that window is force-closed on sight and does not count as a trade.

Note: The lock is written to the database before any closing happens, so a crash mid-close cannot leave you unlocked. It survives an engine restart and can only be lifted by the clock — never by an error.

Rule-based — the engine fires it

You set the limit once; the engine watches and acts. Four rules fire the full kill switch:

• Daily Loss Protection: your trading loss for the day hits the limit. Locks until your next daily reset.
• Max Trades Per Day: you hit your trade count. Locks until your next daily reset.
• Daily Profit Target: you BOOK your target and are flat. Locks until your next daily reset — the win stays a win.
• Close After N Losses: a losing streak. Two tiers, each firing once per streak: a soft lock at your chosen count (default 3 losses → 3h) and a hard lock if it continues (default 5 losses → 12h). A hard lock resets the session when it lifts; a win resets the streak before either.

Note: Deposits are ignored by Daily Loss Protection — it measures trading result, not the balance moving.

Rules that do NOT fire the kill switch

Worth knowing precisely, so you are not relying on something that was never going to close a position:

• Risk Per Trade: closes the ONE position whose stop implies more risk than your limit. It does not cancel your other orders and does not lock the account.
• Stop Loss Protection: alert only. It tells you a position is sitting open without a stop attached; it never closes it. Force-closing you for not having set a stop yet would be worse than the problem.
• Max Drawdown Lock: alert only today, despite the name. It notifies when your account is down past your threshold from its starting balance; it does not close or lock. Do not rely on it as a floor.

Manual — you fire it yourself

On Live guard, "Arm the lockout" closes the account to you for a window you pick: 3, 6 or 12 hours. Use it when you can feel the tilt coming and would rather not test your own discipline. The red Kill switch button in the top bar opens the same dialog from any screen.

• You must be flat first: it refuses to arm while a position is open — "a lockout can't be started mid-trade". Close your position, then arm it. This is the one way the manual switch differs from a rule breach, which closes for you.
• There is no cancel: once armed you cannot call it off. Only the clock lifts it. Support can lift it if something real has happened.
• You can extend, never shorten: arming again for longer pushes the release out. Arming for less keeps the lock you already have — otherwise re-arming for one hour would be an off button.
• It asks twice: a confirm step spells out the window before it arms, because you cannot undo it afterwards.
• It will refuse to arm: if nothing could enforce it — no key, or a key that cannot trade. A lockout you can walk around is not a commitment, so we would rather not offer it.

Note: Once armed, the watchdog closes anything you open for the rest of the window, wherever you placed it.