Your own risk limits on every prop account, set inside the firm's

Why set limits the firm already has

A prop firm enforces its rules after the fact. Cross the daily loss limit by a dollar, let the trailing floor catch up with you, or hold a position past the close, and the account is gone or the day is over. At 3 of the 18 firms we track, at least one program has a daily loss limit that fails the account outright.

Nothing in NinjaTrader or Tradovate stops you at your own number first, and with several accounts open you can't watch every one. A monitor does the watching. It is the "I'm done for the day" decision made in the morning, while you're calm, and carried out automatically in the afternoon.

What a monitor can do

• Daily profit and loss thresholds. When the session's P&L crosses your loss or profit number, the monitor flattens the account and stops it for the day.
• Account Floor. A fixed minimum balance. If the account's net liquidation value drops below it, the monitor cancels orders, flattens, and blocks new signals for the session.
• Trailing drawdown. Tracks the session's high once you're up by a trigger amount and acts if P&L falls a set distance below it. On NinjaTrader 8 it can trail the account's net liquidation value instead, which suits firms with an intraday trailing floor.
• Minimum profit drawdown. Once you're up by a trigger (say $500), it flattens if the day falls back below a floor you pick (say $250), so a green day can't turn red.
• Scheduled flatten. Closes the account at a set Eastern time each weekday, for firms that require you flat by a certain time.
• News lockout. Blocks incoming alert signals from 5 minutes before to 5 minutes after high-impact US economic releases, and can flatten the account as the window opens.
• Trading windows. Up to five time windows per account; alert signals outside them are blocked and logged.
• Monitor Lock. Once a monitor stops the account, you can't restart it until after the close. It is there for the moment you want to win it back.

Turning a firm's rules into monitor settings

Start from the firm page here, which lists the exact numbers for your program, then set each monitor a little tighter. CrossTrade's own docs use a buffer of $300 on a $2,500 limit. The numbers below are an example for an account called PROP1234, not any firm's rules.

If you run several accounts from a trade copier, turn on Tandem Mode so a follower whose monitor has stopped stops receiving copies. For which rule type you're up against, see the drawdown guide.

Setting it up

1. Connect the account. On NinjaTrader 8, install the XT Add-On and keep NinjaTrader connected. On Tradovate, link the firm login through Link Demo.
2. Create a monitor for each account. Each account gets its own thresholds, since a 50K and a 150K account have different limits.
3. Set every number inside the firm's. Daily loss, floor or trail, and flat-by time, each with a buffer for slippage.
4. Choose what happens at the limit. Flatten, cancel orders, block further signals, or switch the account to closing only.
5. Test on a sim account. Trip a threshold on purpose and confirm the account flattens and stays stopped.
6. Check the management log. Every monitor event is recorded, so you can see exactly when and why an account was stopped.

What it won't do

• Guarantee a price. Flattens are market orders and can slip in a fast market. CrossTrade calls it a risk tool, not a guarantee.
• Act with NinjaTrader closed. On NinjaTrader 8 monitors check each account every 2.5 seconds, but only while NinjaTrader and the XT Add-On are running and connected. A scheduled flatten needs the add-on connected at that moment too.
• Block a Tradovate trade in advance. A manual trade placed in Tradovate is closed after the fill, not stopped before it.
• Cover every headline. The news lockout follows scheduled high-impact US releases only, not unscheduled news, and blocking signals doesn't cancel resting orders unless you turn on the flatten.
• Adjust for holidays. A scheduled flatten runs at the time you set. On early-close days, set it earlier yourself.
• Carry a position into the evening session on NinjaTrader 8. The monitor expects the account to be flat when the session opens at 6 PM ET, or it goes inactive; that check can be switched off. The how-it-works docs cover the details.

Which firms' rules leave room for it

7 of the 18 firms we track publish rules that leave room for the Account Manager. The rest either don't run on NinjaTrader 8 or Tradovate, or their fine print excludes it. This reads each firm's own policy; it isn't the firm's endorsement of CrossTrade, so open the firm page for the wording before you connect anything.

Questions traders ask