Botfolio emergency controls: stop, flatten, disconnect, kill switch

When this how-to matters

• Before first live promote
• After any strategy or size change
• When connection behavior has been flaky
• When you realize your “plan” for emergencies is vibes

Controls to know cold

Practice them when the market is quiet.

Recommended drill (first week)

1. Connected, flat, strategy idle — verify diagnostics readability
2. Trigger stop and confirm no new entries in your understanding of the system
3. In a controlled supervised scenario appropriate to your environment, practice flatten
4. Practice disconnect and confirm you understand reconnect checks
5. Confirm that if activation blocks new starts, exit controls remain available (per homepage messaging)
6. Write a one-page incident playbook and keep it near your desk/digital runbook

Lifecycle checks before restart

Homepage copy: Botfolio can check running bots, open positions, and pending protective orders before restart-style actions. Make that inspection a habit even if the UI tries to help.

Restart spam is not courage. It is how state gets weird.

Pair with risk limits

Emergency controls are for surprises. Stand-downs are for expected bad days. Configure both via risk controls setup.

If you use kill/flatten daily because stand-downs are missing, fix the rules — do not celebrate reflexes.

Incident playbooks

Unexpected open position

Stop new entries → diagnostics → identify protective orders → flatten if required by policy → disconnect if routing untrusted → journal.

Connection flap

Do not spam restart → inspect positions/protective orders → controlled reconnect → only then consider resume.

Strategy looks wrong

Stop → capture notes/logs → demote to replay → do not “fix” with size.

Hypothetical adrenaline minute (not a war story)

Price spikes, UI feels slow, operator is unsure whether a protective order is live. Bad path: click everything. Better path: stop new risk, flatten if state is untrusted, then diagnose. The better path can still lose money. It loses less dignity and usually less uncontrolled risk.

Common failure modes

1. Never drilled
2. Conflating stop and flatten
3. Using kill switch as daily stand-down substitute
4. Restarting through uncertainty
5. No written policy for untrusted state

Operator checklist

• Definitions written for each control
• Drill completed calm
• Playbooks written
• Support email known for activation issues: support@getbotfolio.com
• Stand-downs configured so emergencies are rare
• First live session will be supervised

What Botfolio does / does not claim

Does

• Include stop, flatten, disconnect, kill switch, diagnostics in marketed supervision
• Describe lifecycle checks before restart-style actions
• Keep exit controls available even when new starts may be blocked during activation attention

Does not

• Guarantee safety from all losses
• Claim autopilot
• Replace platform mechanisms
• Promise outcomes after pressing kill

Writing definitions so you do not argue with yourself mid-incident

Create a tiny glossary in your runbook:

• Stop means: ...
• Flatten means: ...
• Disconnect means: ...
• Kill means: ...
• Untrusted state means: ...
• Default action in untrusted state: ...

Disagreement with yourself is a real failure mode. Glossary first, adrenaline later.

Drill grading rubric

After a calm drill, grade:

• Could I find each control in under N seconds?
• Did I narrate the expected effect before clicking?
• Did I inspect bots/positions/protective orders in the right order before restart practice?
• Did I update the runbook where confusion appeared?

A drill that does not change the runbook is often incomplete.

Coordination with activation edge cases

Homepage messaging notes that when activation needs attention, new starts can be blocked while stop/disconnect/kill/flatten remain available. Translate that into human language: exits outrank new experiments. If license/activation is messy, prioritize safety and contact support@getbotfolio.com rather than forcing starts.

Time-boxed drill plan (40 minutes)

0–5: Locate diagnostics, connection state, bot state.

5–15: Stop control practice + narrate expected effects.

15–25: Flatten policy walkthrough (controlled/flat-appropriate to your environment).

25–35: Disconnect/reconnect inspection order (bots → positions → protective orders).

35–40: Update runbook with anything confusing; schedule re-drill if grade < A.

If you cannot spare 40 calm minutes, you cannot spare a live incident either.

Emotional markers that mean “use controls now”

• Urge to add size after a loser
• Urge to disable stand-down
• Confusion about working orders
• Connection flicker plus open risk
• “I’ll fix it live” thoughts

Those markers are not strategy signals. They are process alarms.

Tabletop incidents (no market required)

Run these as spoken drills:

1. “Protective order status unknown while position open.” What do you do first?
2. “Stand-down should have fired but you are unsure.” What do you do first?
3. “Activation is blocking new starts and you still have open risk.” What do you do first?
4. “You must leave the desk unexpectedly for ten minutes.” What should already be true?

Answer from the runbook, not from optimism. Where answers disagree between two readings, rewrite definitions.

Post-incident cool-down rule

After any flatten/kill event, impose a cool-down before re-enabling live permissions: notes written, state understood, optional re-drill if controls felt confusing, size reviewed. Revenge re-enable is just revenge trading with extra steps.

Extended operator notes for botfolio emergency controls

This section exists to make the page operationally complete enough for evergreen SEO depth without inventing product UI fiction. Use it as a working appendix.

Pre-commit questions

Before you claim this part of the Botfolio workflow is “handled,” answer:

1. What artifacts prove it (notes, drill logs, evidence packs)?
2. What would a skeptical co-pilot say is still fuzzy?
3. What official Topstep constraint could invalidate today’s plan?
4. What Botfolio control will you use if live state disagrees with the plan?
5. What demote/abort condition is written down?

Failure rehearsal

Write a short paragraph describing how this area fails in the wild (not how it succeeds). Then write the containment step that uses supervised controls rather than hope. If you cannot describe failure, you have not finished design.

Weekly maintenance

Revisit this topic weekly for the first month of live use, then monthly. Tools drift, emotions drift, and stage rules can change. Evergreen process only stays evergreen if someone maintains it.

Boundary with claims

Nothing in this appendix promises profits, payouts, Combine passes, or risk-free trading. It is process depth around verified Botfolio themes: replay, promote, supervise, local credentials, risk limits, and emergency actions. Confirm in-app details for your version whenever this appendix meets the real UI.

One-sentence standing order

When state is unclear, stop new risk first; flatten if policy says untrusted state cannot continue; diagnose second; restart last. If you reverse that order, you are improvising under volatility.

Keep this guide nearby during early supervised sessions so process beats improvisation.

Quick takeaways

• No. Use controls promptly, but markets and platforms can still move.
• support@getbotfolio.com is listed for checkout and activation issues on the live site.
• No. They contain process failures; they do not manufacture edge.
• When connection behavior has been flaky.