Tradovate Lockout: How to Lock Yourself Out After a Loss

Your three lockout options in Tradovate

They solve different problems. The daily loss limit is automatic but editable. The settings lock makes it stick. The manual lockout is a timer you press when you know you should stop.

Which of these you see depends on your account. Brokerage accounts, prop firm evaluation accounts, and funded accounts on Tradovate do not all get the same controls, so check your own platform before relying on any of them.

How to set a daily loss limit in Tradovate Risk Settings

1. Open the Tradovate platform and select Application Settings in the upper right.
2. Select Risk Settings.
3. Choose the account, then enter your Daily Loss Limit. You can also set a Weekly Loss Limit and daily or weekly profit triggers.
4. If your account shows a lock option, turn it on (more on that below).
5. Save.

Screens change between versions. Tradovate’s own Risk Settings guide has the current layout. If you are not sure what number to use, start with how to set a daily loss limit.

What happens when you hit the limit

Tradovate says the account “will be automatically liquidated and locked on a ‘not held’ basis when the loss limit is reached.” Tradeify’s help center describes the same thing in plainer words: “all open positions are closed, and any working orders are canceled,” and “no new positions can be established until the start of the next trading session.”

Tradeify lists the reset as 5:00 PM Central the same day for daily limits, and 5:00 PM Central the following Sunday for weekly limits.

Treat the limit as a trigger, not a guaranteed cap. The exit happens at market prices, so in a fast market the final loss can end up larger than the number you set.

The catch: you can undo it

On its own, the daily loss limit is easy to get around. Tradovate’s page says a locked account can be unlocked at any time by raising the daily loss limit or disabling it. That is exactly what a frustrated trader wants to do right after the limit fires.

This is the gap most people are trying to close when they search for a Tradovate lockout: a limit that you cannot talk yourself out of.

How to lock your risk settings until the reset

Tradovate added a Lock Risk Setting If Hit option in a November 2020 release. According to the release note in Tradovate’s community forum, if the settings are locked and your limit is hit, “they cannot be changed until the loss limit calculation reset,” which Tradovate’s servers run between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM ET.

Turn it on when you set the limit, not after a loss. Some traders report not seeing this option on every account type, so confirm it appears on yours.

Watch out for the $0 setting

Tradeify warns: “Saving a Risk Setting to $0 will result in position liquidation and the cancellation of open orders.” If that happens by mistake, you can disable the setting or set it to a value above zero. Leave a field blank or disabled rather than entering zero.

Manual Lockout: a timed lock you start yourself

Manual Lockout lets you stop trading for a set time even if no limit has been hit. Tradeify describes it this way:

• You start it from Tradovate Web Trader or NinjaTrader Mobile.
• You choose 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, the end of the session, or a custom time up to 24 hours.
• “Once enabled, the lockout is enforced across ALL platforms — including TradingView and NinjaTrader 8 desktop.”
• “Once enabled, the lockout CANNOT be canceled by the trader.”
• It is user-level, so it applies to every account tied to your user ID, not just one.

Prop firms that run on Tradovate Prop get a per-account version called Account Lockout. Tradovate Prop says that positions on that account are closed, working orders are canceled, and “new orders on that account are rejected across platforms.” It cannot be canceled early, and Tradovate Prop says it is available for simulated (evaluation) accounts only.

The weakness of any manual lockout is the word manual. It only works if you press it, and the moment you most need it is usually the moment you least want to.

If you trade a prop firm evaluation on Tradovate

Your firm usually controls the risk settings on an evaluation or funded account. Tradeify, for example, says “Risk Settings are not applicable to evaluation accounts” and can only be used with live and demo Tradovate brokerage accounts. Other firms may let you add a tighter personal limit, or may not. Read your firm’s current rules before changing anything, and keep your personal limit well inside the firm’s. The difference between those two limits is covered in trailing drawdown vs. daily loss limit.

What Tradovate does not lock on

Tradovate’s native risk settings are built around dollar amounts: loss limits, profit triggers, drawdown, position size, and allowed products. In the Tradovate pages we checked, we did not find a native setting for:

• A maximum number of trades per day
• A number of losses in a row
• A trading-hours window
• A blackout around major news such as CPI, FOMC, or NFP

Traders have asked for these in Tradovate’s community forum, including a trade limit per session in 2022 and a trading-hours setting with a lock in 2021. Those are often the rules that would have stopped the day earlier, before the dollar limit was close. See how to set a max trades per day and how to stop revenge trading.

Common questions

Can I unlock Tradovate after hitting my daily loss limit?

If the risk settings are not locked, yes. Raising or disabling the limit unlocks the account. If you turned on Lock Risk Setting If Hit, the settings cannot be changed until the daily reset.

When does a Tradovate lockout reset?

Daily limits reset at the end of the trading session. Tradeify lists 5:00 PM Central for daily limits and 5:00 PM Central the following Sunday for weekly limits. A manual lockout ends when the duration you picked runs out.

Does the Tradovate daily loss limit work on evaluation accounts?

It depends on the firm. Many firms set and control the risk settings on evaluation and funded accounts themselves. Check your firm’s help center.

Can I limit how many trades I take per day in Tradovate?

We did not find a native trade-count limit in Tradovate. You need a written rule you follow yourself, or a third-party tool that enforces one.