Guide · Risk Manager
A daily loss limit, trailing floor and blocked hours for Tradovate accounts in NinjaTrader 8
A daily loss limit is a fixed loss at which trading stops for the day; a trailing floor follows the account's peak P&L and stays a set distance below it. In NinjaTrader 8, the free TapeCrest Risk Manager sets both on a Tradovate account in US dollars, measured from the moment you start protection, and adds blocked hours and a manual lock. When a limit is reached or a blocked window begins, it asks Tradovate to lock the account at the broker.
Updated · 6 min read · TapeCrest
What are a daily loss limit, a trailing floor and blocked hours?
- P&L is profit and loss. Open P&L is the running result of positions that are still open.
- A daily loss limit is a fixed loss at which trading stops for the day.
- A trailing floor sits a set distance below the account's peak P&L and rises with it, but never moves down. In TapeCrest Risk Manager it is the Trailing drawdown field.
- Blocked hours are time windows in which the account is locked, for example the minutes around a news release.
- A broker lock is Tradovate's own account lock. While it holds, the broker refuses the account's orders, whichever platform they come from, until the lock expires.
How a 500 USD trailing drawdown moves, with simulated numbers:
| Moment (simulated) | Change since start | Peak since start | Trailing floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protection starts | 0 | 0 | −500 |
| An open trade reaches +200 | +200 | +200 | −300 |
| Price pulls back | +50 | +200 | −300 |
| The change falls to −300 | −300 | +200 | −300, lock requested |
Open P&L counts, so a trade that peaks at +200 lifts the floor even if it closes lower. A Maximum loss from start of 400, by contrast, stays at −400 for the whole period.
What does TapeCrest Risk Manager need?
The Risk Manager is an add-on window in the NinjaTrader 8 Control Center, not a chart indicator. It needs:
- A Tradovate account in US dollars, connected in NinjaTrader 8 for orders and prices, enabled, on a connection that supports broker account locks. It works only with these accounts: NinjaTrader simulation accounts and other connections are not supported.
- A flat start: no open position and no working orders (orders placed but not yet filled) when protection starts.
- An open trading day: protection can start from Sunday 17:00 to Friday 16:00 Chicago time, outside the daily 16:00–17:00 break.
- NinjaTrader 8 running and connected for the whole period. Closing the Risk Manager window keeps monitoring running; closing NinjaTrader stops it.
- Internet access for the TapeCrest access check. Starting protection needs active access.
- No Order Flow+ and no Tick Replay.
Run your first sessions on a Tradovate demo account and see how the locks behave before you protect a funded or prop account.
How do you set a daily loss limit on a Tradovate account?
- In your TapeCrest workspace, add the tool to your library and copy its installation key. Import its ZIP in NinjaTrader 8 with Tools → Import → NinjaScript Add-On; if the add-on is missing from the New menu afterwards, restart NinjaTrader once.
- In the Control Center choose New → TapeCrest Risk Manager. The first time only, select TapeCrest access, then Paste key & verify.
- Connect your Tradovate account, make sure it is flat, select it and choose Open account plan.
- On the Risk plan tab, fill in the limits you want and leave the others blank. Use
.or,for decimals and no thousands separators. - Set Monitor until to Until 4:00 PM Chicago time, the end of the Tradovate trading day, or to a number of minutes.
- On the Trading hours tab, add blocked windows if you want them (next section), then select Validate calendar for this session to preview them.
- Select Review & start protection, read the summary and confirm with Yes within 60 seconds. The state turns to Monitoring · broker unlocked.
| Field | What it does | Example value |
|---|---|---|
| Trailing drawdown | How far the P&L may fall from its peak since activation | 500 |
| Maximum loss from start | The loss from activation at which the account is locked | 400 |
| Profit target from start | The gain from activation at which the account is locked | Blank (off) |
| Monitor until | The end of the monitoring period | Until 4:00 PM Chicago time |
Make "from start" mean "for the day". The limits measure the change in the account's P&L since you started protection, open P&L included, not the broker's trading-day totals. Start before your first trade and monitor until 4:00 PM Chicago, and the maximum loss works as a daily loss limit. Start after a morning that is already down 150, and a maximum loss of 400 allows a further 400 (example numbers). For blocked hours or manual locks alone, leave all three limits blank.
Once started, the plan is fixed until the end of the period: the fields lock, and closing the window does not reset them. A rule set in a calm moment still holds in a hectic one.
How do blocked hours and news windows work?
On the Trading hours tab:
- Time zone sets the clock for the windows and starts as your computer's. Choose New York if your plan follows the New York session, so the windows stay on the New York clock.
- Block trading during these hours turns on up to three daily windows, Hours 1 to Hours 3, written as
HH:mm-HH:mm, for example12:00-14:00, on the weekdays you tick (Monday to Friday by default). A window may cross midnight. - Request a broker lock around imported news adds a window around each release in a CSV (comma-separated values) calendar file you import: 5 minutes before and after by default, high-impact rows only unless you change it. The file starts with a header such as
DateTime,Title,Impact,Currency, and times written withZor an offset are exact. The Risk Manager does not fetch a calendar, so import a current file that covers the session.
Each window requests the broker lock for its duration, including a window already running when you start. Windows are frozen into the session at the start and cover only the monitoring period. For an unplanned pause inside a running session, Lock account… locks the account for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, until the end of the period, or a time you choose.
What happens when a limit is reached?
- A limit is reached. The decision is recorded with its value as Decision (frozen), and the broker lock is requested until the end of the monitoring period. The state moves from Lock pending · unconfirmed to Broker locked once a fresh broker read confirms it: pending is not locked.
- The broker acts. TapeCrest Risk Manager places, changes and cancels no orders, and it has no unlock: a lock ends at its broker expiry. Depending on the broker, the lock itself can close open positions and cancel working orders; that comes from the broker and cannot be switched off here.
- A limit is a trigger, not an exit price. The final loss can be larger than the number you set.
- The connection drops. The session moves to Needs review: no new lock starts for the rest of the period, and existing locks stay.
- NinjaTrader 8 restarts. Monitoring stops and does not restart by itself. Open the account, select Review saved session, and start a new period with Plan next session… once the old one has ended.
- TapeCrest access lapses. Protection that is already running stays in force: its limits, broker locks, blocked hours and Lock account… keep working until the committed end. A licence answer never cancels orders, closes positions or unlocks an account; only starting new protection needs active access.
The Risk Manager holds you to your own plan and does not know a prop firm's rules. Firms may measure drawdown differently, for example from the account balance or at the end of the day, so check your firm's current rules and set your limits well inside them. Each account takes one TapeCrest protection at a time: an account protected by the Risk Manager cannot be protected or copied by the TapeCrest Copier at the same time, and it should not run under another risk tool either.
Try it
TapeCrest Risk Manager is free for life: a free account and a licence key, no card and no trial. It comes with an English guide and works with Tradovate accounts in US dollars. The TapeCrest Risk Manager page shows how to get access; start on a Tradovate demo account. Running several of your own accounts? See the prop trading workflow and copying trades between your own NinjaTrader accounts. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss; read the risk disclosure before you trade.