Are bots allowed?
Yes, on every account type, from the first day of an evaluation to a Live account. StarTrading does not distinguish manual from automated orders. The rules that apply to a discretionary trader apply to a bot: Max Loss Limit, Daily Loss Limit, position limit, consistency rule, flat time and, on funded Stream accounts, the news window.
What is not allowed?
High-frequency trading: strategies that send orders at a rate designed to capture spread or feed latency rather than a market move. The line is behaviour, not speed alone. A few orders a minute on a breakout is trading; hundreds of orders a minute around the touch is not. Micro-scalping, more than half of the profit from trades held five seconds or less, is flagged the same way. See prohibited practices.
What must a bot handle?
- Flat time: no open position at 4:15 pm ET (Rithmic) or 4:45 pm ET (Tradovate); no entries after it.
- Position limit: 2 to 10 minis by size, micros at one tenth, across all products.
- Daily Loss Limit: when it triggers, orders are rejected until 6:00 pm ET. A bot that keeps sending orders into a rejection is a sign of a missing kill switch.
- News window on funded Stream accounts: flat one minute before and after red-folder releases, including resting orders.
- Consistency: a bot that sizes up on a trend day can create a day above the threshold on Cycle and Direct.
Which platforms support automation?
| Rithmic | Tradovate | |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Direct API, plus NinjaTrader, Quantower, ATAS, Sierra Chart, Bookmap | Tradovate platform, TradingView strategies, NinjaTrader |
| Rate limit | Platform-dependent | 5,000 actions per 60 minutes |
| Typical use | Order-flow, multi-account, latency-sensitive | Rule-based strategies from charts |
Both give your bot the same account rules. Only the flat time and the tooling differ.
Common mistakes
- No time filter: the bot enters at 4:40 pm ET on Tradovate and gets flattened five minutes later.
- No position cap in the code: a pyramid strategy hits the limit and half the orders are rejected.
- Running the same bot inverted on a second account to “hedge the model”. That is a ban.
Simulated accounts until Live. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss.