A guardrail action is your own standing instruction: when this meter reaches this number, do this. You write it, with your own number, and Wildflower carries it out.
Where you set one
Open Accounts, choose the account, and find Guardrails. Under the meters is one block per rule, headed "Your lines, and what happens at them". Each block has three parts:
- Watch this one. Your on and off switch for that rule.
- Tell me when I have used, then your number, then % of the limit. The box starts empty.
- What happens at your line. One of the three options below.
Select Save these rules when you are done. Wildflower says whether anything is now being watched, and tells you plainly if no rule has a line yet.
The three options
- Just tell me. You get an alert when you reach your line. Nothing on the account changes. Every rule starts here.
- Stop taking new trades. The account is paused, so no new entries are taken. Anything already open stays as it is.
- Close what is open, then stop. This account's open positions are closed, then the account is paused.
The third asks you to confirm before it is set. It is the only option on that screen that can close a live position. It will do it without asking again, even while you are away. You can change it back at any time.
Each rule is set on its own. Nothing steps up by itself, and no rule copies another rule's choice.
You set every line
The line is empty until you type one. A rule with no line does nothing, and neither does a rule you have switched off.
What happens when a line is reached
Wildflower checks your rules every few minutes, day and night.
- For Stop taking new trades, the account is paused, the same way the Pause button pauses it.
- For Close what is open, then stop, the positions are closed first, then the account is paused the same way.
Either way, the account shows a halt that does not clear by itself. You lift it when you are ready.
One crossing brings one action and one message, not a stream of them. Wildflower keeps a record of what it did, naming your line as the reason.
If the close could not be confirmed, the alert says so rather than claiming it was done.
Which line your daily loss percentage is measured against
Your percentage is always yours. On the daily loss rule, it is a share of the stricter of your firm's limit and your own daily stop. So an account can be paused at a number your firm never set. The alert says which line was reached. The record keeps both: your percentage, and the line it was measured against.
Automatic actions only reduce risk
Anything Wildflower does by itself can only reduce risk. Resuming, clearing a halt and switching an account back on are always your choice.
What can go wrong
- A rule with no firm number behind it. If your firm's figure for a rule has not been researched, there is nothing to measure against, so that rule never acts. The editor says so under the rule. You can enter your firm's figure on the account's Your firm's rules page.
- Guardrails is part of the Bot. Without it, neither the meters nor this editor are shown.