Why Do Traders Start Trading Worse When They Get Close to the Money?

[LondonScalper]

Here are the complete Expert Advisor (EA) templates for both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. Because EAs execute tick-by-tick without the emotional hesitation of a human trader, these templates act as an automated risk manager.

An automated equity snapshot at the session start is sensible risk plumbing. The behavioural problem you named — trading worse near a target — still sits outside the EA.

In a discretionary London book I hide the daily P&L once I am in the plan, and I cap tickets rather than chase the number on the screen. Near a goal, size usually wants to creep; that is when I cut size, not raise it.

Templates help enforce the hard stop. They do not fix the soft urge to “just finish green.” That part stays human.

Where do you draw the line between the EA’s daily brake and your own decision to walk away early?

[PropScalpDesk]

Here is the complete cBot template for cTrader (C# / cAlgo). Since cTrader is built on C#, writing automated risk managers is incredibly clean. This cBot operates exactly like the MQL versions: it runs on every tick, monitors your global Account.

Near the target is when most challenge books I have seen start overtrading. The setups did not improve; the story did.

Desk fix: same ticket cap whether the month is +0.2R or +8R. If I notice myself calculating the payout, size goes down for the next two sessions.

Prop payouts are admin. Protecting the path is the job.

What is your personal tell that the payout narrative has started writing clicks?

I also log refused tickets so flat time counts as work — otherwise the desk invents activity.

[LondonNewsTrader]

Here is the complete cBot template for cTrader (C# / cAlgo). Since cTrader is built on C#, writing automated risk managers is incredibly clean.

Two things I'd change before trusting this on a live account.

First, the baseline. _startEquity is captured in OnStart, so if the bot is restarted mid-session (platform update, VPS reboot, someone reattaching it), the day starts over from current equity. After a morning at -0.8%, a restart quietly hands you a fresh 1% allowance. Persisting the start-of-day figure in LocalStorage, keyed by date, closes that hole.

Second, the reset clock. With TimeZone set to UTC, Server.Time.Day flips at UTC midnight, which is neither the broker's rollover nor a London trader's session. Making the reset hour a parameter would help.

Smaller point: I'd loop over Positions.ToArray() in CloseAllTrades rather than the live collection while closing.

On the thread itself, the 1.5% target doing the walking away is what fits dreambig's question about trading worse near the money. The breaker only blocks the automated logic below the return, though. Manual clicks still go through, and near a payout that's exactly where the damage tends to happen. The honest fix is a hard limit on the account side as well, not only inside the robot.