Risk checks and the kill switch
The explicit pre-trade check every order passes, and the master-admin control that halts new decisions.
Last updated August 31, 2026
The risk check
No order reaches Alpaca without passing an explicit check first. It verifies, among other rules, that the structure is a defined-risk vertical, that the per-trade maximum loss and the aggregate open risk are within their caps, that the entry slippage is sane relative to the spread's credit, and that no gate (term structure, macro event, VIX extreme) is tripped.
A failed check is not swallowed. It is written to the decision log with the rule that failed and the numbers behind it, and it appears in the dashboard next to the fills.
The kill switch
The master-admin account can pause the agent from Dashboard → Controls. It sets a single flag the runner reads at the top of every cycle and obeys fail-closed: a paused agent produces no new decisions, only a heartbeat. Every pause and resume is recorded in an audit trail. Unpausing lets the next cycle run normally.