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Risk parameters

This page is a field-by-field walkthrough of sections 6 (Risk Management) and 8 (Daily Limits) of the Config page. For an overview of how the Config page is organized, see Configuration overview.

Pro-only edits

All fields on this page require a Pro license to edit. Basic licenses see the same fields but they're locked at the active preset's values. The exception is position sizing (Default contracts, Max contracts, and the per-add-on quantities) — see position sizing below — which both tiers can edit.

Stop loss

The bot's initial stop loss is computed once at first entry and hangs as a real working stop order at the broker until it's hit, moved by breakeven, or replaced by the trailing stop.

Stop loss type

Three modes. Pick one — the other two modes' inputs go inert.

FIXED

A constant points distance from your entry. Fixed stop loss points controls the distance. Simple, predictable, doesn't adapt to market conditions.

Example: Entry at 21000 on /NQ, fixed stop = 30 → stop sits at 20970 for a long, 21030 for a short.

CANDLE

Stop sits at the second candle of the FVG pattern. For a bullish FVG, that's the candle's low; for bearish, the candle's high. Stop distance varies with how big that candle was.

This is the simplest "structure-aware" stop — if the FVG forms and the structure holds, the candle that created it stays a meaningful level.

ATR

Stop distance scales with current market volatility. The bot computes the daily Wilder ATR (Average True Range) over the lookback period you configure, multiplies it by your ATR multiplier, and uses that as the distance.

  • ATR period — how many daily bars to smooth over (default 10). Longer = slower to react to volatility changes, shorter = twitchier.
  • ATR SL multiplier — daily ATR times this number is your stop distance in points (default 0.45 in the recommended preset).

Wider stops on volatile days, tighter on quiet ones. This is what the recommended preset uses.

ATR fallback

If the bot can't compute the daily ATR (data fetch error, insufficient history, etc.), it logs a warning and falls back to the Fixed stop loss points value for that trade. So even on an ATR config, the fixed value still matters — set it to something sane as a safety net.

Take profit

The take-profit is set at first entry and frozen for the life of the trade. Add-on entries don't move it; they raise (long) or lower (short) your average entry, but the TP target stays put.

Take profit type

Three modes.

FIXED

A constant points distance from your entry. Fixed take profit points controls it. The recommended preset uses this with a 200-pt target on /NQ.

MULTIPLIER

TP distance = stop distance × multiplier. A Take profit multiplier of 2.0 with a 30-pt stop gives a 60-pt TP. Convenient when you want your risk-reward to scale with whatever the SL is doing (e.g. on ATR stops).

CANDLE

TP distance = candle 2's range × multiplier. Like CANDLE stops, this keeps the target structurally tied to the bar that formed the FVG.

Modifiers

A few small adjusters apply on top of TP type:

  • Take profit extra points — adds N points to the multiplier or candle TP. Ignored on FIXED.
  • Min take profit points — floor for the multiplier/candle TP. If the calculated target comes out below this, use this instead. Set to 0 to disable.
  • Add FVG extension to TP — if your entry depth is 50% or Conservative, this adds the distance from your entry back to the FVG edge on top of the TP. Compensates for the fact that deeper entries have farther to travel to clear the structure.

Breakeven

Breakeven moves your stop to (or near) your average entry price once the trade has earned some profit. Off by default — you arm it explicitly.

Move stop to breakeven

Master switch. Off = the initial stop holds for the life of the trade (unless overridden by trailing). On = the rest of the breakeven block engages.

Breakeven trigger type

When does the move fire?

TP_MULTIPLIER

Triggers when profit reaches some fraction of the way to TP. Breakeven trigger TP multiplier of 0.5 fires at 50% of the way to TP. Must be greater than 0; a value of 1.0 would fire at TP itself, which is degenerate but allowed.

FIXED

Triggers when profit reaches Fixed breakeven trigger points. Distance-based, independent of where TP is.

Breakeven buffer enabled and Breakeven buffer ticks

When breakeven fires, where exactly does the stop land?

  • Buffer disabled: stop lands exactly at your average entry.
  • Buffer enabled, positive ticks: stop lands a few ticks past entry, locking in a tiny profit.
  • Buffer enabled, negative ticks: stop lands a few ticks behind entry, giving the trade room to breathe before the breakeven level can fire.

Hard floor: the buffer distance must be smaller than the trigger distance. If you set a buffer wider than the trigger, the stop would land at or past the trigger price and instantly close the trade. The Config page rejects this on save; the live engine skips breakeven for the trade if runtime numbers violate the floor.

Behavior under pyramiding

When an add-on fills, the breakeven flag resets. The trade has to re-earn breakeven from the new average entry. This prevents the breakeven level from locking in a guaranteed loss when an add-on raises your average above the prior breakeven.

Breakeven fires on add-on

Optional shortcut: instead of waiting for price to re-reach the trigger after an add-on, move the stop to the breakeven landing the moment the add-on fills. Has a built-in safety guard — the immediate move only happens if the position is currently in profit versus the new average entry. If the add-on dragged the average into the red, breakeven falls back to standard "re-earn at trigger" behavior.

Post-add-on breakeven block

By default, the same breakeven rules apply pre- and post-add-on. The post-add-on block (Differentiate post-addon, plus a mirrored set of post-add-on trigger/buffer fields) lets you use one breakeven config for single-entry trades and a different one once the trade pyramids — e.g. arm BE only on single entries, turn it off the moment an add-on lands.

Trailing stop

Once armed, the trailing stop cancels the take-profit order and replaces the working stop with a trail level that ratchets behind the favorable extreme of the trade.

Designed for trades that push deep into profit but don't quite hit TP. Without a trail, those exit at end-of-day or never make it back to entry. With one, you lock in trailed profit.

Trailing stop enabled

Master switch. The recommended preset has this on.

Trailing stop type

Three distance modes — same shape as the stop loss type.

  • TP_MULTIPLIER — trail distance = TP distance × multiplier. Scales with the per-trade target. The trade is never skipped at runtime even on edge-case volatility.
  • FIXED — constant points behind the peak.
  • ATR — daily Wilder ATR × multiplier. Volatility-adaptive. This is what the recommended preset uses.

Trailing activation type

When does the trail arm?

  • TP_MULTIPLIER — arms when profit reaches a fraction of the way to TP. The recommended preset uses 0.8 (arm at 80% to TP).
  • FIXED — arms when profit reaches a specific points target.

Hard validation

The trail distance must be strictly smaller than the activation distance. Otherwise the trail arms underwater (already behind the activation level), which would instantly close the trade. The Config page rejects this on save. For mixed-mode combos (e.g. ATR trail + fixed activation), a runtime guard skips trailing for that trade if the resolved distance turns out larger than activation.

Interaction with pyramiding

Once trail arms, subsequent add-ons just add size — the trail level keeps ratcheting from the running peak, the average entry doesn't move it. On wide trails with late add-ons, the trade can exit net-negative even though it was deep in profit. This is a documented trade-off, not a bug; if you run wide trails and big pyramids, expect this case.

Position sizing (section 9)

Two fields, both editable on Basic:

  • Default contracts — how many contracts the first entry uses
  • Max contracts — hard ceiling on the total position size, regardless of how many add-ons would otherwise fill

Per-add-on quantities live in the multi-entry section and are covered in Strategy parameters → Multi-entry.

Sizing is the most consequential field

Doubling your contracts doubles your dollar risk per trade — the bot's stop and TP are quoted in points, not dollars, so they don't auto-scale to your account size. Always size with your actual account in mind, not what the preset's defaults happened to be.

Daily limits (section 8)

Two caps that stop the bot for the rest of the trading day.

Max FVG trades per day

Hard count of separate first-entry trades the bot will take in a day. Pyramided add-ons don't count against this — a single pyramid of 3 contracts is one trade, not three. Default 3.

Pro-only to edit — Basic sees the active preset's value, locked.

Daily net stop

A separate optional cap based on wins vs losses net for the day. Off by default. When on, the bot stops for the day when either:

  • Daily net win limit is reached (wins minus losses ≥ this), or
  • Daily net loss limit is reached (losses minus wins ≥ this)

Pro-only. Set either limit to leave blank to disable that side.

Add-on stop loss mode

Addon SL mode (lives in section 7, the multi-entry section, but it's a risk decision so it's surfaced here too).

Two modes:

EQUAL_RISK (default, recommended)

When an add-on fills, the stop is recomputed so the total dollar risk on the position stays equal to the original first-entry risk. The stop moves closer to your average entry as you add contracts.

In practice: the original entry's "risked $X" stays the dollar ceiling on the whole pyramid. You scale up size on confirmation, but you don't scale up your loss-if-stopped.

KEEP_ORIGINAL

The stop doesn't move on add-ons. All contracts share the original stop level. As contracts pile on, the dollar risk grows linearly with position size — a 3-contract pyramid carries roughly 3× the risk of a 1-contract trade.

Used by the WS Terminal Max preset. The trade-off: bigger upside if the move runs to TP, larger losses if it reverses and stops you out at the original level.

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