The trading permission
Every deployment runs under one trading permission. You choose it in the deploy review and can change it later on the deployment's page, under Trading permission.
| Permission | What it means |
|---|---|
| Deny | Places no trades at all, not even exits. |
| Ask | Asks you to approve every trade it makes, including exits. |
| Auto | Asks you to approve each new trade before it is placed. Exits are never held. |
| Always-approve | Trades on its own within its limits, shorts included, without asking you first. |
A Rules or Program strategy deploys under Always-approve only. The other three are locked, with A Program or Rules strategy places its trades within its limits without asking, for now.
For an Agent strategy the picker starts on Ask, unless the agent's own permission is narrower.
On a running deployment, a changed permission is saved with Save limits and applies from the strategy's next trade. See Change the limits.
What a held trade is
Under Ask every trade, and under Auto every new trade, is held instead of going to the broker. Activity lists it as Waiting for review under Needs attention.
A held trade waits 24 hours for an answer. A deadline that would fall in a session's last minutes moves back. It becomes 5 minutes before the close for a new trade, or 15 minutes for an exit. One that would fall while the market is closed moves forward, to shortly before the next session's close.
A newer request from the same deployment for the same stock replaces the one waiting, which then shows as Superseded. An exit asked for again keeps its first deadline. Stop closes the deployment's open requests, and Stop everything… closes every open request on the account.
Answer a held trade
Open the request
Click the notification, and Trade opens on Activity for that account. Or open Activity: held trades wait at the top, in the Waiting for you card.
Read the deadline line
A new trade reads A new trade · answer by a time or it is dropped. An exit reads An exit · placed anyway at a time if nobody answers.
Approve it
Approve… opens Approve this trade? or Approve this exit?. Confirm with Approve and place, or Approve and sell for an exit. Orbital checks the limits, the account's positions and any hold again when you approve, so it can still be refused. If it is, Activity says why.
Or refuse it
Refuse asks Refuse this trade?: nothing is placed, and the strategy may ask again at its next check. Confirm with Refuse trade, or Refuse exit for an exit, whose shares stay open. Keep leaves it waiting.
Or place it yourself
Manual… on a new trade opens the New order ticket as a market order, with the request's stock, side and shares but not its price. Change anything, then place it. The order is yours and shows as Manual, and placing it closes the request. A held exit offers no Manual….
A market order approved while the market is closed is not placed yet: approve it again once the market opens, before its deadline. An exit approved while the market is closed is sent at once and fills at the next open.
When nobody answers
A new trade nobody answers is dropped at its deadline. Nothing is placed, and Activity shows the request as Refused.
An exit nobody answers is placed for you during market hours, after every check an approved trade goes through. The notification is titled Exit placed for you and names the order. If a check refuses it, the notification is titled Your exit could NOT be placed and says why; usually the position is still open.
Exits and shorts
After you press Stop, the strategy's own exits are placed without asking, whatever its permission, until it holds nothing. Stop itself sells nothing; see Stop.
A short entry is treated like any new trade: placed under Always-approve, held under Ask or Auto, and refused under Deny.
Where approvals arrive
Every held trade sends one notification to whoever deployed the strategy, titled Approval needed or Approval needed to exit and then the side and the symbol. Opening it from the Notifications inbox takes you to Trade, where you answer it.
These notifications file under the Automations row of Settings → Notifications, where you can route them to a channel outside the app. See Where notifications are delivered.
The agent's own permissions
An Agent strategy's agent has permissions of its own in Agent settings → Permissions. Two of them reach Trade, and only workspace owners and admins can change them; see The four permissions.
Make trading decisions offers the same four modes with the same meanings; Agent settings spells the last one Always approve. The stricter of the agent's permission and the deployment's trading permission applies. In the deploy review, any option wider than the agent's permission is locked and reads that the agent is not allowed this.
A strategy whose agent has no permission cannot be deployed: the review says the agent has no permission to make trading decisions yet. A workspace owner or admin gives it that first.
Supervise deployments lets the agent pause, resume, stop or change the limits of a deployment, and only a workspace owner or admin can approve each act. See Supervise deployments.