Risk Management

Risk management controls protect capital across strategy development, paper testing, and live trading. Planar exposes risk parameters through strategy configuration and expects layered controls before deploying with real funds.

Position Sizing

Size positions conservatively, especially when transitioning between modes. The risk_level parameter in [MyStrategy.params] caps the fraction of capital committed per position:

[MyStrategy]
include_file = "strategies/MyStrategy.jl"
mode = "Paper"

[MyStrategy.params]
risk_level = 0.02
max_positions = 5

risk_level limits the fraction of capital allocated to a single position, and max_positions limits the number of concurrently open positions. Combined, they bound total market exposure.

Stop Losses

Implement multiple layers of stop-loss protection:

Strategy-level stops that close a position when price moves against it by a fixed percentage
Exchange-level stop orders (see the order types documentation) as a backstop when the strategy process is unavailable
Time-based exits that close positions that have not behaved as expected within a window

Diversification

Avoid concentrating positions in correlated assets. Spread exposure across uncorrelated markets, and consider a multi-exchange setup to reduce single-point-of-failure risk.

Capital Limits

Set strict daily and total loss limits and enforce them in code:

A daily loss cap that stops trading for the day once reached
A maximum drawdown threshold that pauses the strategy and alerts the operator
A maximum deployed capital fraction, ramped up gradually

Margin and Leverage

When trading margin, keep liquidation distance in mind. The margin mode is set per strategy (NoMargin, Isolated, or Cross — see Margin Trading), and the leveraged exchange option controls which sides may use leverage:

[binance]
leveraged = "from"  # "from", "to", or "both"

Planar adjusts the liquidation buffer through the PLANAR_LIQUIDATION_BUFFER environment variable. In isolated margin mode, positions are liquidated when equity falls below the buffer threshold.

Emergency Procedures

Have clear emergency stop procedures before going live:

A single documented call! path that closes all open positions and cancels open orders
Exchange-level API key revocation as the last resort: revoke the keys, then remove the exchange credentials from user/secrets.toml
A monitoring contact who is alerted when the strategy stops responding