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Stopblowing up.

The trading journal that holds your stop, locks IBKR at your limit, and grades every trade on the rule, not the money.

Same trade, twice
Same trade. One lost the account. One trades tomorrow.

An illustration, not a screenshot: one invented trade played twice, once with the stop moved and cancelled, once with it put back and filled. The prices are made up. It is no promise, and the app gives no signals.

entry 6.40
sold at 5.90
where it went
SPX 7715 C · long 4 · 10:02 New York
Closed · −1R
−$200
Stop
filled
Holding
flat
Degen −23.6R · account gone
Pro −1R · +2R tomorrow
Start for $19 a month
How it works

Three things.
Nothing else.

01

It holds
the stop.

A real order at your broker. Widen it and it goes back. Tighten it and it stays.

An illustration, not a screenshot: a stop you can try to move, with invented prices.

Go on. Reach for it.
Stop held
wider than your rule
entry 6.40
last 6.20
stop 5.90
At 5.90. $200 at risk, as planned.
Hold Widen your stop and it snaps back.
02

It grades
the process.

Every trade arrives from your broker. Every position gets a mark for the rules you kept, never for what it made.

An illustration, not a screenshot: a day graded A with four made-up trades, two of them losses at the stop.

A
A losing day.
Still an A.
4 of 4 rules kept · day −0.23R
NVDA 185 C · long· stopped at the rule−1.00R
SPY 768 C · long· stopped out, left it alone−1.00R
QQQ 610 P · long· second touch, quick and clean+0.62R
SPX 7695 P · long· clean break, took the retest+1.15R
Ring: kept the rules and lost. Solid: kept the rules and won. R is what you planned to risk on one trade.
03

It locks
the day.

Set a loss limit, and when it is hit everything closes. The broker shuts on this Mac until tomorrow.

An illustration, not a screenshot: one made-up day on New York time, trading from 09:30, with the daily stop hit at 11:52.

Tuesday daily stop hit at 11:52
09:30 open11:5216:00 close
11:52Your daily stop is hit. 11:52The broker is shut and held shut until tomorrow. WedIt opens again tomorrow.
Your choice, made in the morning, before the day can argue.
Exit hotkeys for TWS

Take profit.
Keep your stop.

In Trader Workstation, selling half means cancelling your stop first. Here it is one key.

TWS alone · 3 steps
  1. 1 · Cancel the stop
    no stop on you
  2. 2 · Sell half
    still no stop
  3. 3 · Rebuild the stop
    stop back on
Degen Pro
1
press

An illustration, not a screenshot: the floating keys with 4 contracts held, a made-up position.

Press a key
Protect
Sells half. The stop stays on the rest.
2 sold · 2 held · stop on
The keys float over every window, so you press them from your chart.
One dot, five trades

Two traders.
Same year.

An illustration from made-up trades, not a screenshot and not anyone's record: each dot stands for five trades, and a gap is days with no account to trade.

Wins 73 in 100.
Lost 4 accounts.
Breaks the rules when it pays.
1,000 trades29 in 100 kept the rules5 accounts used

An illustration from made-up trades, not a screenshot and not anyone's record: each dot stands for five trades.

Wins 60 in 100.
Same account.
Keeps the rules, win or lose. And it grew.
375 trades96 in 100 kept the rules1 account used
kept the rules · won kept · lost broke a rule · won broke · lost

Keeping your rules does not make a year green. It keeps one trade from ending it.

97%
of people who day traded for more than 300 days lost money.
Chague, De-Losso and Giovannetti, 2020
<1%
of day traders could reliably earn a return after fees.
Barber, Lee, Liu and Odean, 2014
After the close

Stop blowing up.
Then scale up.

The three things are the day. This is what happens after it. Option fills arrive from Interactive Brokers as they happen, and futures come in from a Tradovate or TradingView order export. At the close you fill in one card. Over time the record shows when you have earned more size.

An illustration, not a screenshot: a made-up month of trading days, each painted by whether its rules were kept, with invented money.

A month you can read
from across the room.
Green: you kept every rule, win or lose. Red: you broke one. Darker means more of it.
A solid day is One and Done: one position, every rule kept, and it won.

An illustration, not a screenshot: a Daily Report Card with made-up answers.

One card
at the close.
It opens with the one thing you said you would change, and what actually happened.
From Friday
Working on: no trade in the first five minutes.
What actually happened
Widened a stop. It paid. Still a break.
Did you keep to it today?
Tomorrow's one thing
Decided by your answer above.
Answer, and the line below moves.

An illustration, not a screenshot: a made-up record of three things worked on, two of them kept.

1% better
every day.
The one thing you are working on. When it holds, the next.
Stop at the rule · holds, after 9 days
Size by the plan · holds, after 6 days
No trade in the first five minutes · day 5
The flat line is the thing you are working on now. The hollow ring over it is the next checkpoint: tonight, if it holds. Answer the card and watch the line.

An illustration, not a screenshot: the default sizing ladder with a made-up count of trades and days. The example takes the edge as positive and large enough for the sample to see.

Size the record
has earned.
Six rungs, from 0.50% of the account per trade to 2.00%. Up one at a time. Down two at once.
Stay where you are, on 0.75%. Still missing: 12 more trades at this size. 3 more trading days.
Trades at this size18 of 30
Trading days7 of 10
Rules kept100% (needs 90%)
When it moves you
Up, when
30 trades over 10 trading days at this size, an edge the sample can see, rules kept at 90% or more, and no drawdown as deep as a day’s limit.
Down, at once
A drawdown reaches twice your daily limit, rules kept falls under three quarters, or the expectancy is negative over 20 trades or more.
It never suggests more than half Kelly from your own measured edge. And it ignores the one thing people size up on: a good few weeks.
Before you buy

Three yeses
and it fits.

Yes
A Mac
macOS 14 or later
Yes
IBKR Pro
with Trader Workstation or IB Gateway
Yes
Options
SPX, SPY, QQQ or AAPL · one long call or put at a time

Not covered: shares, spreads and short options. The stop is held at IBKR only. The journal also reads futures from a Tradovate or TradingView order export. IBKR's phone app and website still trade.

  1. 1
    The account

    Sign in. Pay on Stripe's own page.

  2. 2
    The app

    Download, drag, sign the Mac in. Nothing to type.

  3. 3
    The broker

    Install the helper, the small program the app installs to talk to Trader Workstation.

  4. 4
    macOS

    One switch in System Settings, and a yes when macOS asks.

Practise first: on your IBKR paper account every key works the same. How setup goes ›

Pricing

One plan.
All of it.

$19per month

$49per month

  • A stop that snaps back when you widen it, by default
  • Take profit without losing your stop
  • The keys floating over your chart
  • Grades from your own fills
  • A day that locks when it is done
  • A coach that has read your record · your own API key
Start yearly $228 Start monthly
Not useful? Ask within thirty days of a payment and it is refunded. No form, no explanation. Cancel from your account. Terms
What you need: macOS 14 or later, IBKR Pro, Trader Workstation or IB Gateway. Options on SPX, SPY, QQQ or AAPL, one long call or put at a time; shares are not covered.

Straight answers.

Will it make me profitable?
No promise, and be suspicious of anyone who makes one. It stops the blowing up.
Does it place trades for me?
Only an entry you pick. It gives no signals.
Does it need my broker login?
No. You log in to Trader Workstation yourself. Degen Pro talks to its API on your own Mac, and never sees your password.
How is my stop held?
Your stop is a real order at the broker, checked every three seconds. On the default setting, move it wider than your rule, or cancel it, and it goes back. Move it tighter and it stays.
What can it send to my account?
Only these orders.
  • Your stop: placed, resized with the position, put back at your rule, and cancelled under your rule's premium floor.
  • The exit keys: the stop resized, other sells on that contract cancelled, then the sale.
  • An entry you press, cancelled if unfilled within seconds, then its stop.
  • Lockdown: each reach for the stop put back; the third locks the broker once you are flat. Nothing is sold for a reach.
  • At a loss limit you set: every working order cancelled, the whole account closed at market.
  • At 15:59 New York time on a weekday, if an option it watches expires that day and is still open: the working orders in its symbols cancelled, and a market sale if it is long.
What ends the trading day?
Choose how many losing trades in a row end the day, and the broker shuts once you are flat. Choose the account's daily loss limit, and when it is hit the helper, the small program the app installs to talk to Trader Workstation, closes everything in the account and shuts the broker. Each is off until you choose it.
What is the morning sit?
The first step of the day. If you turn on the morning gate, Trader Workstation stays shut each morning until you have sat for five minutes, or the length you set, and shuts again at 16:30 New York time. The gate is off unless you turn it on.
Can I override a locked day?
Not from the lock itself. Two ways: Settings → Broker → Locks and lockout times → Change → Open IBKR now, after a warning; or a script in the helper's folder, a long sentence to type and four hours to wait.
Can I practise without real money?
Yes. On your IBKR paper account every key works the same, and the limits bind as they do on real money (switching accounts).
What can't it do?
  • One position at a time. It holds one long call or put at a time, on SPX, SPY, QQQ or AAPL. The buy ladder is SPX and SPY. Shares are not covered, nor are spreads or short options.
  • With two long options open it holds neither, and the menu bar says STOP NOT HELD.
  • TRAIL moves one stop, and only up. A press sells nothing. Once the trade is ahead by the start amount in your rules, the helper keeps the stop under the highest bid it has seen.
  • It needs the helper running, a real-time quote, and one plain stop for the whole position. PROTECT and RUNNER start no trail. Try it on a paper account first.
  • Your rule, not your last move. A stop you tightened, or that PROTECT moved up, can be widened back as far as your rule.
  • The loss limit counts the whole account. The account's daily loss limit is its own number, not the daily stop. It is off until you turn it on, and starts at $250.
  • Lower it in Settings → Trading → Daily stop, under Whole-account daily limit, and the helper takes it from the next session; a higher number is written down and refused.
  • Once it is on and is hit, the helper closes everything open in the account at market, shares included, then shuts the broker.
  • This Mac, not your phone. The lock closes Trader Workstation, IB Gateway and IBKR Desktop on this Mac. IBKR's phone app and website still trade.
  • Nothing running, nothing held. Without Trader Workstation or the helper running, no stop is held. The menu bar says NO TWS or NO HELPER in words.
  • The exit light checks the key is bound and the helper answers; it cannot see a broker set to refuse orders until you untick Read-Only API.
  • Switching accounts. The helper follows Trader Workstation between paper and real by itself, except while something is still open in the account it left: then it stays and says so.
Free tools · no sign-in, no upload
One bad day Without a stop, it can take the account. See what yours would cost. Open the calculator › TWS What happens to your stop when you exit Open the table › 14 of 37 What your export says about your stops Open the reader ›

14 of 37 is an example with invented numbers. Each tool works from what you give it.

Guides Daily loss limit on IBKR A stop that fires TWS API setup All guides ›

Discipline
moves first.
The money follows it.

Download for $19 a month