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 | No limit — practice money |
| Starter | 1 | $250 |
| Trader | 3 | $500 |
| Max | 10 | No limit |
| Lifetime | Unlimited | No limit |
The capital column describes live trading. Whenever you are on the paper account there is no capital ceiling at all, on any plan — see Practice trading has no capital ceiling below.
Original Elite members keep unlimited strategies
If you joined on our original Elite plan (today's Max) and you still pay your original price, you keep what you were promised: unlimited strategies running at once. The Strategies page shows Unlimited at once, and on Billing your plan card reads Unlimited (grandfathered).
Example
You've been on Elite at $399/mo since last year. A new Max member at $199/mo can switch on 10 strategies at a time; you can switch on as many as you like.
Warning
This lasts only while you stay on your original price. If you move to today's Max price, your limit becomes 10, and you can't get unlimited back. See Switching to Our Current Pricing.
This is capacity, not strategies included
The number above is how many strategies may run at the same time — it is not a number of strategies that come with the plan. No plan includes a strategy.
You fill those slots in whichever way suits you, and two of the three cost nothing extra:
- Your own signals — free. Point TradingView alerts, your own software, AI-generated signals, or alerts from another group at the webhook your account provides.
- Hybrid trading — free. Place trades yourself from Hybrid Trade and let the engine manage the exits.
- Marketplace strategies — sold separately. Subscribe to a StaxInvesting strategy or one published by another trader. Each is its own subscription on top of your plan. Your first month on any paid strategy is free — one per customer — so you can try one before committing.
So a Starter plan with no marketplace subscription is a complete, working setup — one strategy running, driven by signals you supply.
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 real money one trade may use. On Starter that's $250, so no single live 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, trading live, 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 Trader (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.
Practice trading has no capital ceiling
While you're on the paper account, your plan's capital limit does not apply. You can set Max Capital Per Trade to any amount you like and practice at that size, whatever plan you're on. The ceiling exists to limit how much of your real money one trade can commit, and there is no real money on the paper account.
This applies to every plan, not just the Paper plan. If you're on Starter and you switch to the paper account to test something, you are not held to $250 there.
Example
You're on Starter and you want to see how a strategy behaves at $1,000 a trade before deciding whether to upgrade. Switch to the paper account, set Max Capital Per Trade to $1,000, and it saves and trades at that size. Your live ceiling is still $250 the moment you switch back.
Note
Because of this, your practice results can show position sizes your live plan wouldn't allow. If you're using paper to judge what a strategy would really have done for you, set Max Capital Per Trade to your live ceiling so the two match. See Paper Trading.
Warning
Switching back to a live broker brings your plan's ceiling straight back. A strategy you left at $1,000 on paper is not erased, but your live trades are sized down to your plan's limit and the Strategies page says so. Lower it yourself if you'd rather the number matched what's actually being used.
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 per market
The strategy allowance is counted separately for each market you trade — options, futures and stocks each get the full count. On Starter that means you may have one options strategy, one futures strategy and one stock strategy switched on at the same time.
Each market is its own subscription, so buying one never costs you a slot in another. Switching on a stock strategy does not use up your options slot.
Example
On Starter you switch on an options strategy for your SPY signal source, then a futures strategy, then a stock strategy. All three are allowed. Trying to switch on a second options strategy is refused until you switch the first options one off — but your futures and stock strategies are untouched.
The count in the header tells you which market you're looking at. When your broker runs more than one — tastytrade, Public and Robinhood each trade options and stocks on one login — the badge breaks the count out per market, so a full options slot never looks like a full stock slot.
Paper is the exception. The paper account's allowance is one shared pool across all three markets, because it is a limit on how much the practice engine carries rather than something you've bought.
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.