BookPilot's risk preset is a single switch on the Chart Trader panel that changes three things at once: how many contracts it trades, how often it may trade and how long it pauses after a loss. Knowing exactly what each preset does keeps you from being surprised by your own position size.
The three presets
| Preset | Contracts | Trades per hour | Cooldown after a loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| LOW | Always 1 | At most 10 | 60 s |
| MEDIUM (default) | Half of Order Qty, rounded down, at least 1 | At most 20 | 20 s |
| HIGH | Full Order Qty | No cap | 5 s |
You can switch preset from the panel while the strategy runs. The Risk Preset setting decides which one is active when it starts.
How Order Qty interacts with the preset
Order Qty (base) defaults to 1. It is a base number, not the size of every trade. Only HIGH trades the full amount. Some examples:
- Order Qty 1: LOW 1, MEDIUM 1, HIGH 1. All presets trade the same size.
- Order Qty 3: LOW 1, MEDIUM 1 (half of 3 rounded down), HIGH 3.
- Order Qty 4: LOW 1, MEDIUM 2, HIGH 4.
So if you want 2 contracts on MEDIUM, set Order Qty to 4. Check what HIGH would then trade before you press it.
Sizing against your daily loss limit
The guide suggests sizing so that one full stop is no more than a third of the Daily Max Loss. With the defaults, the stop is $100 per contract and the Daily Max Loss is $750, so a third is $250. Two contracts risk $200 per stop, which fits. Three risk $300, which does not.
That rule matters because the daily max loss counts closed trades. The last losing trade can carry the day past the limit by up to one stop, so a stop that is large relative to the limit makes the overshoot large too.
The hourly cap
LOW and MEDIUM cap trades per hour. When the cap is hit, signals are blocked and the panel's Blocked line says so. The cap is a brake on busy, choppy periods, when a scalping strategy can otherwise trade far more than you intended. HIGH removes it, which means a choppy hour can produce as many trades as the signals allow.
The cooldown
After a losing trade, BookPilot waits before re-arming. LOW waits a full minute, which gives the book time to change after a stop-out. HIGH waits 5 seconds, which allows fast re-entry in a rotating market but also lets losses come in quick succession. FlowPilot handles the same idea with a separate Cooldown After Loss setting of 20 seconds by default.
What the presets do not change
- The signals. Pressure Break and Pulled Wall settings are unaffected.
- The bracket. The default $150 target and $100 stop per contract stay the same.
- The daily profit goal and daily max loss.
- Risk Tolerance, which is a separate early-exit policy. At its default of High, only the bracket closes a trade.
Choosing a preset
The guide's suggestion is LOW while testing, then MEDIUM. LOW keeps every test trade at one contract and spaces out losses, which makes Market Replay sessions easier to read. Move to MEDIUM once the signals and fills make sense to you. HIGH is for traders who have tested the strategy at size and understand that it removes the hourly brake.
One testing note: rewinding or jumping in Market Replay resets cooldowns and the hourly trade count. Run sessions continuously, or the preset will look looser than it is.
The full settings table is in the BookPilot user guide. If you trade a prop firm account, set the daily limits against that firm's rules first; the prop firms page lists firms that support NinjaTrader 8. Plan details are on the BookPilot product page.
A cautious preset limits size and pace, not the chance of a losing day. Try each preset in Market Replay and SIM before running it on an evaluation, funded or live account.