The most important settings in an automated strategy are often not the signal settings. They are the two numbers that decide when the day is over. Here is how both Vantedge strategies handle them, and how to choose values that suit your account.

What a lock does

Both FlowPilot and BookPilot track realised profit and loss for the session. When it reaches the Daily Profit Goal or the Daily Max Loss, the strategy stops taking new entries for the rest of the session. FlowPilot disarms and the NinjaScript Output window says which limit was reached. BookPilot moves to its Locked state. Both reset at the next session automatically.

Both strategies ship with the same defaults: a $2,500 profit goal and a $750 max loss.

The overshoot nobody mentions

The limits count closed trades. A trade that is open when you are $700 down for the day is not counted until it closes. If it then hits its full stop, the day ends beyond your limit.

An example with FlowPilot on ES: the default stop is 16 ticks, or $200 per contract. Down $700 with one more trade open, a full stop closes the day at $900 down, $150 past the $750 limit. The guides are explicit about this: the last trade can go past the max loss by up to one stop.

Setting the max loss for a prop firm account

If your account has a daily loss limit, the guide's rule is to set Daily Max Loss below that limit by at least one full stop. Suppose your firm's daily limit were $1,000 and your stop is $200 per contract on one contract. A Daily Max Loss of $800 or lower leaves room for the overshoot.

Size matters here too. The suggested sizing keeps one stop at no more than a third of the Daily Max Loss, so normal losing streaks do not end the day after two trades. Check your firm's current rules, including any trailing drawdown, on its own site. The prop firms page lists firms that support NinjaTrader 8.

Setting the profit goal

The suggested range is 2 to 4 times the Daily Max Loss. A goal close to the loss limit stops you early on good days and locks in gains. A high goal lets the strategy keep trading, and keep giving back. There is no correct value, only a choice about how you want good days to end.

Zero does not mean the same thing in both

  • FlowPilot: setting either limit to 0 switches it off.
  • BookPilot: 0 does not switch the limit off. A Daily Profit Goal of 0 locks the strategy after the first trade that is not a loss. Always set both to real amounts.

If BookPilot locks right after its first trade, this is almost always the cause.

The cooldown after a loss

Alongside the daily limits, both strategies pause after a losing trade. FlowPilot's Cooldown After Loss is 20 seconds by default, adjustable from 0 to an hour. BookPilot's comes from its risk preset: 60 seconds on LOW, 20 on MEDIUM, 5 on HIGH. The cooldown slows the quick re-entries that tend to turn one loss into several.

End of session

BookPilot also closes any open position 30 seconds before the session ends, and its trading window (08:30 to 15:00 exchange time by default) stops new entries outside those hours without closing open trades.

Test the limits, not just the signals

FlowPilot's daily goal, max loss and cooldown are not applied in Strategy Analyzer backtests. Confirm on Sim101 or in Market Replay that they trigger when you expect. For BookPilot, run replay sessions continuously, since rewinding resets cooldowns and the hourly trade count. The comparison page lists each strategy's risk controls, and the FlowPilot and BookPilot pages summarise the plans.

Daily limits cap a bad day; they do not prevent one, and the last trade can still overshoot. Watch them work in SIM, and in Market Replay for BookPilot, before relying on them in an evaluation, funded or live account.