Power cuts and the open position problem

[Amanhasnoname]

Electricity failures happen, and a laptop battery only goes so far. For anyone trading from home, a power cut during a trade is a plausible scenario.

The main protection is structural. Every position should have a stop-loss on the server, not just in a local script. Orders sitting on the broker's system keep working when the home setup goes dark.

A small uninterruptible power supply for the computer, router and modem buys time to close trades calmly. They're affordable, and even ten minutes of runtime covers most brief outages.

It's also useful to have the broker's phone number saved, along with the account number and any verification details, so that a position can be closed by phone if the app isn't available.

A mobile app and a charged phone handle many cases. Setting up two-factor authentication in a way that works from a phone matters too, since it can lock out a trader at the worst time.

Preparing takes an hour. The alternative is improvising in a crisis.

What is your emergency routine, and when did you last test it?