You can have an account trade smaller while it is below its starting balance, and go back to its normal size by itself once it is back.
Switching it on
On the account's Your limits page, switch on Smaller size below your starting balance and choose 25%, 50% or 75%. Nothing is chosen for you. The starting balance is the account size you entered, for example $50,000 for a 50K account.
What changes
While the account's balance, as your broker reports it, is below its starting balance, every trade is sized at the share you chose of its normal size. Its maximum dollar risk and its contract limits, including your firm's, are all reduced by that share. Once the balance is back to the starting balance, trades are sized normally again.
- Which trades are taken, and their entry, stop and target, do not change. Only the size does.
- A trade the smaller size cannot buy one contract of is skipped.
- Your daily loss limit and daily profit target stay as you set them.
When Wildflower cannot read the balance
If Wildflower has not read a balance from your broker in the last 20 minutes, it uses the smaller size until it has. The same applies when the account has no account size entered.
When a switch happens
A switch applies from the next trade once the account has no open position. Each switch is recorded, with the balance that caused it.
Which accounts it applies to
Only the account you set it on. Other accounts in the same settings group keep their own choice.
In backtests
A backtest does not use this setting: it sizes every trade at its normal size. A replay of a live day does use it, on the balance the account had when each replayed stretch of the day began.