Risk Controls
Limits your bot cannot talk its way around
Risk Controls at Ashford & Whitaker are stored in a separate, locked layer of the platform — your strategy logic cannot override them, and neither can a runaway market condition.
Why risk rules need their own architecture
When strategy logic and risk logic live in the same code layer, an update to one can silently affect the other. We separate them by design: your strategy engine generates order requests, and the risk layer evaluates each request against your standing rules before it ever reaches the broker API. If an order violates a rule — daily loss cap reached, position size above ceiling, volatility index above your threshold — it is rejected at the risk layer and logged with a reason code. Your strategy never knows the order was blocked; it simply receives no fill confirmation. This architecture means you can update your entry conditions freely without touching your risk configuration.
Risk control types available
Configure any combination — they stack and all run simultaneously.
Daily loss cap
Define a maximum net loss in lei (or your account currency) per calendar day. Once hit, the bot halts all new order requests until midnight local time — or a manual reset if you prefer.
Position size ceiling
Set an absolute maximum position size per instrument or a percentage-of-account cap. The ceiling applies to individual legs and to the aggregate exposure across all open positions simultaneously.
Volatility circuit-breaker
Link a pause trigger to a real-time volatility index of your choosing. When the index crosses your threshold — for example, during a central bank announcement — the bot suspends order generation automatically.
Scheduled blackout windows
Block trading during scheduled high-risk periods: earnings releases, major economic data prints, or simply overnight hours when you prefer flat exposure. Windows repeat weekly or on specific calendar dates.
“Setting a hard daily loss cap was the single best decision I made when I started automating. There was a day in March when the bot would have kept trading into a losing streak for six more hours. The cap stopped it at 14:22 and saved me roughly 1,800 lei that afternoon.”
Andrei P., algorithmic trader, Iași
What risk controls cannot do
Risk controls reduce unwanted automated exposure, but they do not eliminate market risk. If a position is already open when a volatility event occurs, the circuit-breaker prevents new orders but does not close the existing position — you must configure a separate stop-loss at the strategy level for that. Likewise, a daily loss cap counts realised and unrealised P&L differently depending on your accounting preference; we explain both methods during onboarding and document your chosen method in your account settings. For leveraged instruments, gap risk at market open can produce losses larger than any intraday cap can prevent — this is an inherent property of leveraged trading, not a platform limitation.
Build your risk layer before you go live
A 45-minute configuration session with our team covers every control type and sets your initial parameters.
Book a risk setup session