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

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 what each one still receives from the leader. An Off follower receives nothing. A Disarmed follower that is not Market Only receives only the leader's Close (closing the position, or Flatten All), which flattens it: it does not receive new exit orders, or changes and cancellations of the leader's stop and target. The stop and target the follower already has at the broker stay there at their current prices and can still fill. 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)

Right-click in the Replikanto window while a trade is open: 1 = ATM Copy and Cross Order, 2 = Network Node Mode (Local Network) and Remote Node Mode (Internet) are greyed out. Disarm Followers stays available. Hovering a greyed item shows why (the tooltip is not shown in the image).

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.

Sim102 and Sim103 are in a trade; Sim104 is Off and flat, so nothing on its row is locked. 1 = the dimmed Ratio, ATM Copy, Market Only and Cross Order cells of the followers in a trade, 2 = the greyed Instrument, Leader Account and Method selectors, 3 = the row's Flatten (×) button, which stays available. The tooltips quoted above appear when you hover a dimmed cell or a greyed selector; they are not shown in the image.

Group headers (1.7.1.0 or later)

Starting with Replikanto 1.7.1.0 the Follower Accounts list can have group header rows (one per broker connection, or your own custom groups). A click or a value typed on a header applies to all the accounts of the group, and the in-trade lock works account by account:

• ATM Copy, Market Only, Cross Order and Ratio, % or Pre Allocation. Accounts that are in a trade are skipped; the others in the group are changed. A window lists the accounts that were not changed, for example "In a trade; flatten them or wait for the trade to finish (2): Sim102, Sim103", and the Log tab shows Warning [1124]. Flatten those accounts, or wait for the trade to finish, and click the header again.
• The number cell of the header (the Ratio, % or Pre Allocation of the group) is dimmed and read-only only when all the accounts of the group are in a trade. While at least one account is free, you can still type a value and it is applied to those accounts.
• Status (the On circle of the header) is not locked. It can turn accounts on or off even when they are in a trade. If it is going to turn off accounts that hold a position or working orders, Replikanto asks for confirmation first, because Replikanto stops copying to them, exits included.
• Flatten and Rearm of the header are never locked, like the row's Flatten (×) button and Flatten All.
• Creating, editing, renaming and deleting groups is never locked: groups only organize the list.

If the property Lock follower settings while in a trade is off, no account is treated as being in a trade and none is skipped.

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.

Properties > General > Lock follower settings while in a trade (on by default).

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. Open the NinjaTrader Log tab and find the Info [1063] lines for that account. Replikanto writes one when the lock engages on a row, when you click a control the lock has blocked, and when it could not read the orders on that account and locked the row as a precaution (that line shows reason=probeFailed), with what the lock counted on that account.
2. Send those lines 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 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.