Assistance to Prevent Accidental Trades on Live Account

[Aviram Y]

Subject: Seeking Assistance to Prevent Accidental Trades on Live Account

Hello NinjaTrader Team and Community,

I hope this message finds you well. I recently experienced an unfortunate incident while trading which resulted in a significant financial loss, and I'm hoping to find ways to prevent such situations from occurring in the future.

As a user of NinjaTrader 8, I maintain both a live trading account and an Apex Trader funded account. The mishap occurred when I mistakenly executed a large position on my live account, when it was intended for the Apex Trader account. The resulting misunderstanding led to a hefty sum being lost in the process.

While I understand that the responsibility for account management ultimately lies with the trader, I'm reaching out to explore if there are any features or functionalities within NinjaTrader 8 that could aid in preventing these types of errors. Specifically, are there any options or features that could block, confirm, or prevent trading on a live account especially when a strategy is running on it?

For instance, is there an existing feature that might prompt a confirmation dialog box whenever a trade is about to be placed, especially for larger positions? Or perhaps some kind of warning or alert system that could be enabled for trades of certain sizes or types?

I would appreciate any guidance, suggestions, or insights into how NinjaTrader 8 can be used or customized to safeguard against such incidents.

Also, I'd be grateful if any fellow users who've faced similar situations could share their own strategies or precautions to handle this.

Looking forward to your helpful responses.

Best regards,

Aviram Y.

[bltdavid]

CC > Tools > Options > Trading > Confirm order placement

[Aviram Y]

CC > Tools > Options > Trading > Confirm order placement

CC > Tools > Options > Trading > Confirm order placement

Thanks for the help as always david, any other suggestions you might have?

[bltdavid]

Thanks for the help as always david, any other suggestions you might have?

Most of the tricks I'm aware of are really just based on personal self-discipline.
(And, they all sound like admonishments, too)

Things like,
1. If you're only trading Apex, don't connect to your Live acct, and vice versa.
2. If you're trading both via trade copier, monitor Orders/Positions/Accounts tabs like a hawk.
etc etc

In the beginning,
The one I liked the best is to setup a workspace and/or templates dedicated
to each of your two accts -- change the background color to reflect which
account it is -- for ex, put Apex trades only on white background charts, live
trades only on black background. But I found this to be too much work.

You could try adding a watermark to the chart background,
https://ninjatraderecosystem.com/use...oad/watermark/

Seriously, train yourself to use that no 2 suggestion above.
I'd recommend keeping a separate window with Orders/Positions/Accounts
(not the CC window, this is a separate window with just those 3 tabs) and set
it to AlwaysOnTop, move it to a known location on one of your many monitors,
then watch that window like a hawk on every trade -- I usually watch Orders tab
first, then while I'm in a position I watch the Positions tab.

That window (and the Watermark idea) are my best suggestions.

Good luck!

:-)

[bltdavid]

I'd recommend keeping a separate window with Orders/Positions/Accounts
(not the CC window, this is a separate window with just those 3 tabs) and set
it to AlwaysOnTop, move it to a known location on one of your many monitors,
then watch that window like a hawk on every trade -- I usually watch Orders tab
first, then while I'm in a position I watch the Positions tab.

The point is, by diligently watching that window, your brain will recognize
which account(s) have a position and you'll be able to rectify the position(s)
if your brain detects something amiss (such as the wrong acct, or too many
contracts, etc).

Make this window a part of your 'in-trade' monitoring and position management.

How to create it?
In CC window, along bottom row of tabs, right-click on Orders tab, menu pops up,
select 'Duplicate in New Window', then in that new Window, click big plus sign '+'
along bottom tab row, add Positions, and add Accounts. In each tab, right click
and adjust properties to show most important fields.

[Aviram Y]

I am deeply grateful for your detailed suggestions and advice - I appreciate the time and thought you've put into helping me. Your insights have provided a great deal of clarity on how to manage trading more effectively and prevent accidental trades. I particularly appreciate your ideas on changing chart background colours and monitoring the Orders/Positions/Accounts window.

I do have a follow-up question for anyone who is able to provide an answer. In the account settings, I've noticed there's a "Grant Trading Permissions" button. When I've attempted to use it, I consistently receive an "Error: Incorrect contact information" message. Could you help me understand what this feature does and why I might be experiencing this error?

Looking forward to your response. Thank you again for your assistance.

Best regards,

Aviram Y.