Replikanto Follower Guard: Protect Your Follower Accounts

Follower Guard watches your follower accounts and warns you when one stops matching the leader. If you choose, it also cancels a follower entry that did not fill, flattens a follower that stays out of step, disarms it so it stops copying, and sends you an e-mail, so a problem on one account does not keep growing while you trade.

Status at a glance: each follower shows whether it is On, Out of sync, Disarmed or Off.
Automatic actions: cancel an unfilled follower entry, or flatten a follower that is out of sync, in the opposite direction or hit by an order error, after a delay you set.
Disarm and alert: with Disarm Followers on, a follower that Follower Guard acted on stops copying until you rearm it, and you get a message and an optional e-mail.
Rithmic position check: on Rithmic accounts, Replikanto re-reads a follower’s real position from the broker before Follower Guard or a Replikanto flatten acts on it.
You decide how strict it is: every action is off by default; only Disarm Followers is on.

How it works

Follower status

The dot in the On column of the Follower Accounts grid shows each follower’s state. Hover over it for a short description.

Four status dots, top to bottom: yellow, green, gray and red

Out of sync (yellow): the follower’s position does not match the leader’s. It keeps copying trades as usual.
On (green): the follower copies the leader and matches it.
Off (gray): the follower does not copy, and Follower Guard leaves it alone.
Disarmed (red): Follower Guard acted on this follower. It copies no new orders until you rearm it, but it is still flattened when the leader closes its position.

Click a follower’s dot to turn it On or Off. Clicking the dot of a Disarmed follower turns it back On.

When a follower is Out of sync

Each time positions change, Replikanto waits for them to settle and then compares every follower that is On with the leader, on the tab’s instrument (or on the follower’s Cross Order instrument). It checks the direction (long, short or flat) and the quantity the tab’s copy method says the follower should hold. A difference in either marks the follower Out of sync. When the positions match again, the follower turns back On by itself.

Out of sync is a warning, not an action: the follower keeps copying. You can close it yourself with the Flatten button (×) on its row, or let one of the options below act for you.

Replikanto window with follower Sim102 marked Out of sync (yellow dot) holding 1 contract while Sim103 holds 2, above the NinjaTrader Control Center Positions tab showing the leader Sim101 long 2 — A follower marked Out of sync

Some followers are compared in a way that fits their copy method, so they are not flagged for a position they are meant to hold:

Negative Ratio: the follower’s direction is inverted before the comparison, so a follower that trades the opposite side on purpose is in sync.
Pct Change: not marked Out of sync. This method adds to or reduces the position the follower already holds, so there is no leader size or direction to match.
Ratio with decimals, Available Cash, Net Liquidation, Pooled Quantity (more than one follower) and Pre Allocation: each leader entry is sized and rounded down on its own, so Replikanto allows for the small shortfall that rounding leaves on a follower that scaled in with the leader. A follower holding more than expected is still flagged.
A flat follower sized to zero: when the copy method gives a follower 0 contracts, a flat follower is in sync.

The NinjaTrader Log tab records why each follower was marked Out of sync (direction or quantity), with the leader, follower and expected quantities.

The Follower Guard options

All options are in the Follower Guard group of the Replikanto Properties. They apply to the tab you open them from.

Replikanto Properties with the Follower Guard group expanded, showing the e-mail fields, Disarm Followers, the cancel and flatten options and their delays in seconds — The Follower Guard group in the Replikanto Properties

Cancel the follower entry order if it is not filled

When the leader’s entry order fills, even partly, Replikanto starts a countdown set by Cancel the follower entry order after X seconds (5 by default). If a follower’s copy of that entry has not received any fill when the time is up, Replikanto cancels it, together with the stop and target this tab copied for that entry on the same instrument. The follower’s other working orders, on another instrument, placed by hand or copied by another Replikanto tab, stay in place. A partially filled entry is left working. With Disarm Followers on, the follower is also disarmed.

Flatten the follower if it becomes out of sync

When a follower turns Out of sync, a countdown starts, set by Flatten the follower if it becomes out of sync after X seconds (10 by default). It is a grace period:

If the follower comes back in sync before the time is up, nothing is sent.
Each time this follower’s position on that instrument changes while it is Out of sync (each fill, including partial fills), the countdown starts again, so a follower that is still being filled in parts is not closed while it catches up. Updates from unrelated connections or accounts do not restart it.
When the time is up, Replikanto checks the follower again and flattens it only if it is still Out of sync and still has a position or a working order on that instrument. The flatten closes the position and cancels the working orders on that instrument.
Then, with Disarm Followers on, the follower is disarmed.

Keep the delay long enough for ordinary fill and reporting delays. A very short delay can close followers that were only catching up with the leader.

Follower Guard options Flatten the follower if it becomes out of sync and its delay, set to 10 seconds — Flatten a follower that stays out of sync

Flatten the follower if its position is in the opposite direction

This option acts only when the leader and the follower both hold a position, on opposite sides. A quantity difference alone does not trigger it. Its countdown is set by Flatten the follower if it is in the opposite direction after X seconds (5 by default) and restarts each time a position changes on the tab (the leader’s or any follower’s) while this follower is still out of step. When both options are on, the shorter delay acts first; with the default delays, that is this one.

Follower Guard options to flatten a follower whose position is in the opposite direction and its delay, set to 5 seconds — Flatten a follower in the opposite direction

Flatten the follower when an order fails

These options watch the orders Replikanto copies to the follower. When the broker or NinjaTrader reports one of the errors you selected, Replikanto waits the delay in Flatten follower in the event of an error after X seconds (3 by default), disarms the follower if Disarm Followers is on, and flattens it on that order’s instrument.

Flatten follower if any submitted order is rejected: the broker rejected the order.
Flatten follower if it was unable to submit order: the order could not be submitted.
Flatten follower if the changing order submitted returns in error: a change of price or quantity failed. A change that fails only because the order had just filled or been cancelled does not trigger it.
Flatten follower if the cancellation order submitted returns in error: a cancellation failed.
Flatten follower if an unspecified error is returned: the operation was aborted or ended with an unspecified error.

The five Follower Guard options that flatten a follower on an order error, and the delay option set to 3 seconds — Flatten a follower when one of its orders fails

Exit-stop protection works together with the change option. When the leader moves an exit stop to a price the market has already passed, Replikanto waits for the leader’s result, then places the follower’s stop at a valid price and retries if the market keeps moving. A change the broker rejects while that retry is under way does not trigger the flatten; the flatten runs only if the retries run out. This helps avoid stop desync and unwanted flattening, although rare broker rejections are still possible.

Disarm Followers

Disarm Followers is on by default. After any Follower Guard action, the follower is disarmed: its dot turns red and it copies no new orders from the leader until you rearm it. With Disarm Followers off, the actions still run, but the follower stays armed and copies the leader’s next trade.

You can switch it in the menu you get by right-clicking the Replikanto window, or in the Properties. Both change the same setting.

Replikanto right-click menu with the Disarm Followers item checked and outlined in red — Disarm Followers in the Replikanto menu

Replikanto Properties, Follower Guard group, with the Disarm Followers option checked — Disarm Followers in the Replikanto Properties

When a follower is disarmed

When the first follower on a tab is disarmed, Replikanto brings the tab to the front, outlines the follower grid in red and shows Follower Guard’s Account(s) disarmed message with the leader account and instrument. If you set an e-mail address, the alert is sent at the same moment. While a follower on the tab is still Disarmed, further disarms do not repeat the message or the e-mail.

Message Follower Guard - Account(s) disarmed over the Replikanto window, with a red follower dot and the follower grid outlined in red — The message shown when a follower is disarmed

E-mail alerts

Enter an address in E-mail to receive follower disarm alerts and, if you like, a subject in E-mail Subject. The address and subject are shared by all your Replikanto tabs. Replikanto sends the e-mail through NinjaTrader, so NinjaTrader needs a default e-mail share service: in NinjaTrader, go to Tools > Options > General > Share services, add an Email service and mark it as the default. See NinjaTrader’s General options help.

Follower Guard group with the E-mail to receive follower disarm alerts and E-mail Subject fields filled in — The e-mail fields in the Follower Guard group

The e-mail names the leader account and instrument:

E-mail with the subject Replikanto Follower Disarm Alert and the text Replikanto has disarmed one or more followers for leader Simulation 1/MES MAR24 — Example of a disarm alert e-mail

Rearm

The Rearm button is shown while Disarm Followers is on, or while any follower on the tab is Disarmed, and you can click it once a follower is Disarmed. You can rearm followers in several ways:

Rearm: every Disarmed follower on the tab turns back On, and the sync check runs again.
Flatten (×) on the follower’s row: flattens that follower on the tab’s instrument (or its Cross Order instrument) and turns it back On right away, without waiting for the position to show flat.
The follower’s dot in the On column: turns that follower back On.
Flatten All: flattens the leader and its followers that are not Off, on the tab’s instrument (or the follower’s Cross Order instrument), including Disarmed and Market Only followers, then turns back On each Disarmed follower whose position shows flat. A follower that still shows a position stays Disarmed: check it in NinjaTrader and rearm it once it is flat. With Pct Change, closing the leader’s position does not close the followers’ positions (Market Only followers excepted), so check Pct Change followers in NinjaTrader after Flatten All.

Rearming does not reopen any position that was closed. Copying restarts from what the accounts hold now, so before you rearm in the middle of a trade, check that the follower is flat and that you want it to follow the leader’s current position.

Replikanto window with the red Disarmed follower Sim102, the follower grid outlined in red and the mouse on the Rearm button — The Rearm button

Rithmic accounts: the position is re-read first

Rithmic does not always report position changes in step with fills, so NinjaTrader can show a Rithmic account in a position the broker has already closed, or miss a fill. Acting on that position could open a real one. To reduce that risk, Replikanto asks Rithmic for the account’s real position, with no order sent:

before it flattens a follower, whether the flatten comes from Follower Guard, the row’s Flatten button, Flatten All or a leader Close copied to the followers;
before the out of sync countdown flattens a follower, and during the sync check when a recent fill had no position update;
on its own, shortly after a fill on a Rithmic account that was not followed by a position update.

This is the option Refresh a Rithmic account’s position before acting on it in the General group of the Properties. It is on by default, covers every Rithmic account, leader or follower, and applies to all Replikanto tabs.

Remote node status

Computers that receive trades from this one are listed under Replikanto Nodes. Their dot shows only whether the node is On, Off or Away:

Three status dots, top to bottom: green, gray and red

On (green): the node receives the trades.
Off (gray): nothing is sent to the node.
Away (red): the last trade did not reach the node, or the node answered with an error. The node list is outlined in red.

Replikanto keeps sending trades to an Away node, and the node turns back On when one gets through. Check the NinjaTrader Log tab on both computers to find the cause. If an internet node stays Away, turn it Off until the problem is solved, so Submit credits are not spent on copies that may not arrive.

Replikanto window with a local network node whose dot is red (Away) and the node list outlined in red — A node marked Away

How to set it up

Right-click the Replikanto window and choose Properties….
In the Follower Guard group, leave Disarm Followers checked if a follower should stop copying after Follower Guard acts on it.
Check the actions you want and set their delays: Cancel the follower entry order if it is not filled, Flatten the follower if it becomes out of sync, Flatten the follower if its position is in the opposite direction, and any of the Flatten follower if… error options with Flatten follower in the event of an error after X seconds.
Optionally, enter E-mail to receive follower disarm alerts and E-mail Subject, and set up a default e-mail share service in NinjaTrader.
If you trade Rithmic accounts, keep Refresh a Rithmic account’s position before acting on it checked in the General group.
Click OK. The settings are saved with your NinjaTrader workspace.

Replikanto right-click menu with the Properties... item outlined in red — Open the Replikanto Properties from the right-click menu

Good to know

One tab, one instrument: Follower Guard acts on the tab’s instrument (or the follower’s Cross Order instrument). Positions the account holds on other instruments are not touched. Each Replikanto tab guards its own followers, and Rearm applies to the tab you click it on.
Followers only: Follower Guard does not act on the leader account, and it ignores followers that are Off.
Flatten is NinjaTrader’s Flatten: it closes the position with a market order and cancels the working orders on that instrument. The broker can still reject an order, so check the account after Follower Guard acts.
Followers on other computers: the out of sync check needs the leader’s position, so it runs only for followers on the leader’s computer. A follower on a computer in Network Node Mode or Remote Node Mode is not marked Out of sync, and the two flatten options that depend on it do not act there. The other options, Disarm Followers, the e-mail alert and Rearm run on the follower’s computer, with that computer’s own settings.
Rearming remote followers: the leader’s computer cannot rearm followers on another computer. Use Rearm, Flatten All or the row’s Flatten button in the Replikanto window on the follower’s computer. Flatten All on the leader’s computer also sends the flatten to the connected nodes.
Rithmic limits: the position re-read runs only while a Replikanto window is open, and followers on another computer are re-read by the Replikanto on that computer. Flatten All re-reads each follower before flattening it, but closes the leader with the position NinjaTrader shows at that moment, so if the leader’s position looks wrong, check it with your broker first. NinjaTrader’s own close and flatten buttons are not Replikanto actions and are not re-read beforehand. If Rithmic does not answer in time, the action goes ahead with the position NinjaTrader shows.
Settings locked during a trade: with Lock follower settings while in a trade on (the default, in the General group), you cannot change a follower’s sizing and copy options, or the tab’s leader account, instrument and copy method, while a trade is open. Such a change could put followers out of sync and, with a flatten option on, get them closed. Disarm Followers, Rearm, Flatten All, the row’s Flatten button and the On column are not locked.

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