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Why Can't I Change Follower Settings During a Trade?

Rodolfo Machado
Updated

Starting with Replikanto 1.7.0.0, some follower and tab settings cannot be changed while a trade is open. This article explains what gets locked, what counts as "in a trade", what you see in the Replikanto window, how to unlock the settings, and how to turn the lock off. Typical symptoms: you can't change the Ratio, cells in the follower grid look dimmed or greyed out, ATM Copy, Market Only or Cross Order won't toggle, the leader account or instrument selector is disabled, or the instrument switches back by itself.

Why the settings are locked

Changing a follower's sizing or copy options in the middle of a trade can leave part of the position uncovered. For example, lowering a follower's Ratio from 2 to 1 while it holds 2 contracts makes the copied exit close only 1 contract and leaves the other one open. Changing the leader account mid-trade can put every follower out of sync (and, with Follower Guard armed, get them flattened and disarmed), and changing the instrument mid-trade leaves the open position on the old contract unwatched and out of reach of Flatten All. The lock prevents these edits until the trade is over. It is on by default, including in workspaces saved with an older version.

What counts as "in a trade"

A follower account is in a trade when, on the instrument it trades for this tab (the Cross Order instrument, if the follower has one), it has:

  • an open position, or
  • a live working order (for example, a pending limit entry, a stop or a target), even with no position yet.

A follower that is Off or Disarmed is never locked. Keep in mind that an Off or Disarmed follower does not copy the leader's exits, so switching a follower off is not a safe way to edit it while it still holds a position.

What is locked

On one follower row (while that follower is in a trade)

  • Cross Order
  • ATM Copy
  • Market Only
  • Ratio
  • Pre Allocation
  • % (Pct. Change)

On the whole tab (while any follower on the tab is in a trade, or the leader account holds a position)

  • The leader account selector
  • The instrument selector (a change coming from a linked chart is also refused and reverted)
  • The copy Method
  • The ATM Copy and Cross Order menus
  • Network Node Mode (Local Network) and Remote Node Mode (Internet)
  • Import... in the follower grid menu (Export... stays available)

Never locked

  • The On column (turning a follower on or off)
  • The row's Flatten (×) button
  • Flatten All
  • Disarm Followers and Rearm

What you see

  • Locked cells in the follower grid are dimmed. The value or icon you see is still the one in effect; nothing is cleared.
  • Hovering a locked follower cell shows: "This follower account has an open position or a working order. Use this row's Flatten (×) button, or wait for the trade to finish, before changing this setting."
  • The tab's selectors and menus are greyed out, with the tooltip: "At least one follower account on this tab has an open position or a working order. Flatten it, or wait for the trade to finish, before changing this setting."
  • If you were typing a Ratio, Pre Allocation or % value when the trade started, that edit is cancelled.
  • Clicking a locked control does nothing and writes an information line to the NinjaTrader Log tab, for example:
Replikanto: [Follower] Ignored a 'ATM Copy' change because this follower account is in the middle of a trade. Flatten it with this row's X button, or wait for the trade to close.
Replikanto: [Follower] Ignored a 'Leader account' change because a trade is open on this tab. Flatten the follower accounts, or wait for the trade to close.

How to unlock the settings

  1. Wait for the trade to close, or flatten the follower with its row's Flatten (×) button (or use Flatten All). Make sure no working orders are left on that follower.
  2. The lock clears within about a second once the follower has no position and no working order. The tab-wide lock clears once every follower on the tab and the leader account are flat with no working orders.
  3. Make your change.

Turning the lock off

The lock is controlled by the property Lock follower settings while in a trade, in the General group of the Replikanto Properties (right-click in the Replikanto window > Properties). It is on by default, it is set per tab, and it is saved with the workspace. We recommend leaving it on. Turn it off only if a follower stays locked when it should not. The Orders column keeps counting working orders either way.

A follower stays locked for no reason

If a row stays locked although the follower is flat and you see no working order (for example, an order the broker never closed out):

  1. Right-click the follower in the follower grid and select Log order details. Replikanto writes an Info [1063] line to the NinjaTrader Log tab with what the lock counted on that account, and copies it to the clipboard.
  2. Send that line to FlowBots support.
  3. To keep working in the meantime, turn off Lock follower settings while in a trade in the General properties of that tab.

Info [1063] lines are also written when the lock engages on a row and when you click a locked control; they are informational and need no action unless the lock looks wrong.

Remote followers (Local Network and Internet)

The lock applies on the machine where the follower row lives. On a follower machine running in Network Node Mode or Remote Node Mode, that machine's follower rows lock while they are in a trade. A leader tab on another machine cannot see the remote followers' positions, so its tab-wide lock follows only its own local followers and the leader account's position.

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