Your subscription plan sets two ceilings on your automation: how many strategies you can run at once, and how much money each trade is allowed to use. These are different from the guardrails you set yourself in Trade Limits — those are your choices, these come with the plan you pay for.
What each plan allows
| Plan | Strategies running at once | Most capital per trade |
|---|---|---|
| Paper | 5 | Practice money only |
| Starter | 1 | $250 |
| Pro | 2 | $500 |
| Elite | Unlimited | No limit |
| Lifetime | Unlimited | No limit |
You can create as many strategies as you like on any plan — the limit is on how many are switched on at the same time. Everything else stays saved and ready, so you can park one strategy and start another whenever you want.
The capital limit
Max Capital Per Trade is the most money one trade may use. On Starter that's $250, so no single trade will ever commit more than $250 of your account, no matter how many contracts the price would otherwise allow.
If you type a number above your plan's ceiling, the Save button turns off and the page tells you the limit. Nothing is saved until you bring it back down.
Example
You're on Starter and set Max Capital Per Trade to $300. The page won't save it and shows "Your plan allows a maximum of $250 per trade." Change it to $250 (or anything lower) and it saves normally.
This ceiling applies everywhere money goes into a trade — automatic trades from your signal source and trades you place yourself from Hybrid Trade. Futures strategies are the one exception: those are sized by number of contracts rather than by dollars, so the capital box doesn't appear for them at all.
Note
Your own Max Capital Per Trade setting still works normally underneath the plan ceiling. If you're on Pro (a $500 ceiling) and you set $200 because that's the size you want, your trades use $200. The plan limit only ever caps you — it never raises you.
If a strategy is already set too high
If you had a strategy saved above your plan's ceiling before these limits took effect, nothing is switched off and nothing you saved is erased. Your trades are simply sized to the ceiling instead, and a message appears at the top of the Strategies page naming the strategy so you know what's happening.
Example
Your Starter strategy still shows $300 in the box, and the banner reads "Your plan caps trades at $250… so trades are being sized at $250." Your trades keep running — just at $250. Edit the strategy to $250 to make the box match reality, or move up a plan.
The same is true of the strategy count. If more strategies are switched on than your plan allows, none of them is turned off for you — but you won't be able to switch on another one until you're back within the limit. Nothing is ever disabled underneath you in the middle of a trading day.
The strategy count is separate for options and futures
The strategy allowance is counted separately for options and for futures, because only one broker runs at a time and a strategy of the other kind sits idle. On Starter that means you may have one options strategy and one futures strategy switched on together.
Example
On Starter you switch on an options strategy for your SPY signal source, then switch on a futures strategy too. Both are allowed. Trying to switch on a second options strategy is refused until you switch the first one off.
Raising your limits
Go to Billing and choose Change Plan. Upgrades apply straight away — your new ceiling is live within moments, without restarting anything or re-saving your strategies. Downgrades take effect at the end of the period you've already paid for, so you keep your current limits until then.
Tip
If you're bumping into the capital ceiling regularly, check your Trade Limits first. Running one strategy at $250 with a tighter daily trade limit is often steadier than stretching for a bigger position — and it costs you nothing.