Risk settings
The controls that decide how much of your balance goes to work. The strategy's own rules stay fixed; these only change the size.
On this page
Each account has its own settings, and the page shows what they apply to. Most can only be changed while the account is stopped. Balance used is the exception and applies live.
Balance used
This is the share of your balance the strategies trade with, and the simplest way to soften a strategy. Lower it and swings and returns both shrink in proportion. When several strategies share a wallet, Tarvis may limit the value you enter and tells you if it does.
The controls
| Control | What it sets |
|---|---|
| Risk per trade | How much of your balance you can lose on a single trade if it hits its stop |
| Leverage | The most one trade may be worth, as a multiple of your balance, and the margin the exchange locks for it |
| Max total exposure | The most all open trades may be worth together, as a multiple of your balance |
| Max open trades | How many trades can be open at once. 0 means no cap. |
| Daily loss limit | After losing this much in a day, new trades open at a reduced size until the day recovers |
| Margin mode | Cross shares margin across positions and is the recommended mode. Isolated ring-fences each trade. |
Reset to defaults returns an account to the recommended values.
Leverage does not make trades bigger
This is the most common misunderstanding. The Leverage control sets a ceiling and how much margin is locked; the size of a trade comes from the strategy's sizing and your balance used. To take less risk, lower Balance used. Lowering Leverage alone may not change a thing.
Liquidation is the real danger of leverage: if a position falls too far against your margin, the exchange closes it. The strategies keep total leverage limited, but the risk stays.
Sensible first steps
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Start with the defaults
They are the settings the strategies were tested with.
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Check the worst case
Find the max drawdown on the Backtest page. If you could not sit through it, lower Balance used until you could: half the balance means about half the fall.
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Change one thing at a time
Then give it a few weeks before you judge the result.
To stop or limit trading right now, these settings are not the tool. Use the modes on Positions.