Some days you're just done. Maybe it was a rough morning, a news event is coming that you don't want to trade through, or you're stepping away from the screen. Stop Trading tells the bot to take no new trades for the rest of today, and then it turns trading back on by itself for the next trading day. There's nothing to remember to switch back on.
You can stop your whole account, or just one strategy.
Stopping your whole account
- Click Stop Trading in the top banner. It's on every page, right next to Flatten All.
- Read the short summary, and choose whether to also close what's open right now (see below).
- Click Stop Trading to confirm.
From that moment:
- No strategy opens a new trade. That covers alerts, webhooks and manual entry.
- The button turns into a red "Stopped for today" pill. It shows on every page, so you always know trading is paused. The Live Trades page also shows a banner with the time you stopped and your P&L at that moment.
- Trading turns back on by itself at midnight Eastern.
Stopping just one strategy
There are two ways to do it:
- On the Strategies page, open the strategy card's ⋮ menu and choose Stop for today….
- Or click Stop Trading in the top banner and use Or stop just one strategy at the bottom of the dialog.
Only that strategy stops. Your other strategies keep trading as normal. The strategy's card shows 🔒 STOPPED and a banner saying when you stopped it.
A stopped options strategy comes back at midnight Eastern. A stopped futures strategy comes back at 5 PM Eastern, which is when a futures trading day ends, so it's ready for the evening session (see Trading Hours).
Note
A whole-account stop always ends at midnight Eastern, even if you trade futures. The evening futures session opens at 6 PM Eastern, so your futures strategies are paused from when you stop until midnight, then start trading again. To pause a futures strategy until tomorrow's 5 PM, stop the strategy itself instead.
Closing what's already open
The dialog has a checkbox: Also close my open positions now (or, for one strategy, Also close this strategy's open trades now).
- Checked: the bot closes every position it opened, at market price, right away. It's like Flatten All, except new trades are also blocked for the rest of the day.
- Unchecked: your open trades keep running on their own stops and targets. Only new trades are blocked.
The box starts checked or unchecked based on your Flatten open positions on trigger setting, the same one your Killswitch uses. You can change it every time.
Example
It's 11:15 AM. You're up +$340 and you have to leave for an appointment. You click Stop Trading, leave Also close my 2 open positions unchecked, and confirm. Your 2 open trades finish on their own stops, and nothing new opens for the rest of the day. Tomorrow morning everything runs as usual, with nothing to turn back on.
Changing your mind: Resume
You can undo a stop any time the same day. Use whichever is closest:
- the red Stopped for today pill in the top banner;
- Resume Trading on the Live Trades page banner;
- Resume on a stopped strategy's card.
Confirm, and trading starts again right away.
Resuming a stop you made yourself works differently from unlocking a killswitch:
- Your profit target and loss limit stay armed. Nothing gets switched off for the rest of the day.
- If you passed one of your targets while you were stopped, trading stays locked under that target, just as if the killswitch had tripped.
Example
Your profit target is +$500. You stop trading at +$340 and let your open trades finish, and they close the day at +$520. When you press Resume, trading stays locked, because your profit target was reached while you were stopped.
How it's different from the other controls
| Control | What it does | When it ends |
|---|---|---|
| Stop Trading | Blocks new trades, and can close open ones | By itself, at the next trading day |
| Flatten All | Closes every open position right now | Doesn't block new trades at all |
| Trading enabled switch | Blocks new trades | Stays off until you turn it back on |
| Killswitch | Stops trading automatically when a target you set is hit | By itself, at the next trading day |
Tip
Use Stop Trading for "I'm done for today." Use the Trading enabled switch only when you want the bot off until you decide to turn it back on, for example while you're away on vacation.
Good to know
- Paper and real are separate. If you're on Paper Trading, Stop Trading stops your paper account only, and a real-money stop never touches paper. Each account keeps its own stop.
- Price-triggered entries are cancelled, not saved. If you've set a trade to open when a price is reached, and that price is reached while you're stopped, that entry is cancelled rather than held for later.
- It survives a restart. If the system restarts during the day, your stop is restored exactly as it was.
- The P&L Calendar remembers. Days you stopped by hand get a blue marker on the P&L Calendar. Hover over the day to see when you stopped and what your P&L was.