Per-trade position sizing
Choose fixed fractional (risk a set percentage of current equity per trade) or ATR-adjusted sizing (reduce position size when volatility spikes). Both approaches are configurable at any time without redeploying the bot.
Risk Controls
An Automated Strategy Without Risk Controls Is Just a Faster Way to Lose
We embed hard-coded risk limits directly into your bot so the system can protect your capital even when you're offline.
What We Mean by Built-in Risk Controls
Risk controls are not an afterthought or a dashboard toggle — they are logic blocks inside the bot that run on every tick, before any order is placed. At Sterling Atelier we implement four layers: per-trade position sizing (fixed fractional or volatility-adjusted), a daily loss limit that halts all new entries if the account drops by a configurable percentage, a drawdown circuit breaker that moves the system to read-only mode when cumulative losses exceed a threshold, and a maximum open-position cap that prevents the bot from pyramiding beyond your risk tolerance in fast-moving markets. Each limit is documented in your strategy specification and cannot be overridden without a code change.
Four Layers of Automated Protection
Each control operates independently so one layer failing does not disable the others.
Daily loss halt
If the bot's net P&L for the calendar day crosses a configured loss threshold, all new order generation stops immediately. The system resumes the following trading session unless manually overridden.
Drawdown circuit breaker
Cumulative drawdown from the equity high-water mark is monitored continuously. Crossing the circuit-breaker level suspends live trading and sends an alert to your email and Telegram simultaneously.
Open-position cap
A maximum concurrent open-trade limit prevents the bot from compounding exposure during correlated moves. You define the cap; the bot enforces it regardless of how many signals fire simultaneously.
What Risk Controls Cannot Do
Hard-coded controls protect against execution risk and behavioural overreach — they do not protect against market risk itself. A gap open, a liquidity crisis, or a broker outage can produce losses that exceed any configured threshold before the system has time to respond. We are transparent about these limits because traders who understand them size their accounts appropriately and don't treat the circuit breaker as a guarantee. Risk controls make a good strategy safer; they don't make a poor strategy viable.
Add Professional-Grade Risk Controls to Your Existing Bot
We can retrofit our risk module onto bots we didn't build — review typically takes three to five business days.
Get a retrofit quote