Risk management

This page explains Cortiq’s risk system: a dual-layer control plane that sits above the AI decision and the MT5 execution. By the end you’ll know what each limit does, what happens at a breach, and how to configure rules that genuinely protect the workflow.

What this is

Cortiq does not assume a good AI response is enough. Every trading system needs an independent control layer above execution, and that layer is built into the product.

The risk system is dual-layer. Global limits apply across every connected MT5 account; per-account limits apply to one account in isolation. Both layers run on every closed trade, so a single trade can simultaneously be allowed under your global rules but breach a per-account rule, or vice versa.

The two layers exist because most operators have at least two simultaneous mandates: a whole environment mandate (don’t let total daily drawdown exceed X) and a per-account mandate (don’t let prop-firm Account A exceed its specific challenge limits). Mixing the two into one rule set produces rules that are wrong for both.

How it fits into Cortiq

flowchart TB
  T(Closed trade<br/>on Account A) --> G[Global<br/>RiskValidator]
  T --> P[Per-account<br/>RiskValidator A]
  G --> Gd{Global<br/>limit breach?}
  P --> Pd{Account A<br/>limit breach?}
  Gd -->|yes| Gs(Stop all sessions<br/>cancel all pending orders)
  Gd -->|no| ok1[Continue]
  Pd -->|yes| Ps(Stop sessions on Account A<br/>cancel Account A pending orders)
  Pd -->|no| ok2[Continue]

Each closed trade is recorded in both validators. The two breach paths are independent: a global breach stops every account; a per-account breach stops only that account.

Risk is visible in two screens:

Tools → Risk Management — configure global and per-account limits.
Library → Dashboard — monitor real-time risk usage across the environment.

How to use it

Configure global limits first

Open Tools → Risk Management and select the Global tab. Set conservative defaults before any live execution.

Risk Management page with the Global tab selected, all six limits visible

Conservative is not optional. Tighten until you’d be comfortable with the worst-case loss the rule allows; you can always loosen later, but you can’t undo a breach that exceeded a too-wide limit.

Configure per-account limits

Switch to the Per-Account tab and configure rules for each MT5 account independently. Use this to encode account-specific mandates: prop-firm challenge limits, a personal account’s daily drawdown, a secondary account’s max exposure.

Risk Management page with the Per-Account tab selected, one account's limits visible

Configure your day-start time

Risk validators reset their daily counters at a configured local time, not at OS midnight. Set the day-start time to match your trading day (often 22:00 UTC for FX). The wrong day-start time silently makes “daily drawdown” mean something else than you expect.

Watch for `RiskPaused` sessions

When a validator triggers, the affected sessions transition to RiskPaused. Don’t manually unpause — the platform resumes them automatically when the breach condition clears (for example, the next trading day starts). Stop the session manually if you genuinely want to override.

Reference

Limits the platform enforces

Limit	Layer	Triggers when
Maximum daily drawdown	Global, per-account	Total realized + unrealized loss exceeds the configured percentage.
Maximum weekly drawdown	Global, per-account	Loss across the rolling week exceeds the configured percentage.
Daily profit target	Global, per-account	Cumulative daily P/L meets the configured target.
Weekly profit target	Global, per-account	Cumulative weekly P/L meets the configured target.
Maximum daily trade count	Global, per-account	Closed-trade count for the day reaches the limit.
Maximum total open trades	Global, per-account	Concurrent open positions reach the limit.
Maximum trades per symbol	Per-account	Concurrent positions on one symbol reach the limit.
Maximum symbol exposure	Per-account	Combined exposure on one symbol exceeds a percentage of equity.
Default risk per trade	Per-account	New orders sized above the default risk percentage are blocked.
Stop-on-loss-streak	Per-account	Consecutive losing trades reach the configured count.
Include manual trades	Both	Toggle: count manual MT5 trades against the same validators.

What happens on a breach

Layer	Effect
Global	Cancels all pending orders, risk-pauses every running session.
Per-account	Cancels the affected account’s pending orders, risk-pauses that account’s running sessions. Other accounts continue.

In both cases the affected sessions move to RiskPaused and the breach is logged with the trigger condition.

The emergency-stop circuit breaker

When a hard limit breaches, an emergency-stop service fires before the next trade can compound the loss. It is the circuit breaker that sits between a breach and your account:

It cancels pending orders — every account on a global breach, only the affected account on a per-account breach. When Include manual trades is off, only orders linked to Cortiq sessions are cancelled.
It risk-pauses every session currently Running in the breached scope.

A separate unrealized-P/L monitor complements this by polling open positions on a short interval and force-closing them when the realized plus unrealized total breaches a daily drawdown or profit target — so a single open position can’t drift far past the limit between closed trades. Soft limits (trade count, loss streak, max open trades, symbol exposure) reject the next order but do not trip the circuit breaker.

Common questions

My session is RiskPaused — should I resume it? No. The pause exists because a limit was hit. Either let the validator auto-resume (when the daily counter resets, for example), or stop the session and review the journal before changing the limit.

Risk limits applied but I see a loss bigger than the daily drawdown — why? Validators run on closed trades. An open position can drift past the daily drawdown intra-trade; the validator triggers when the loss is realized or when the unrealized loss is checked at cycle end. To enforce a hard intra-bar stop, set protective SLs on the positions themselves.

Do risk limits apply to External MCP sessions? Yes. Both autonomous and external sessions go through the same validator pipeline before any order reaches MT5.