> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.askfutures.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Turn Live trading on

> Put an armed strategy on Live trading: choose the account, set contracts per signal, run the demo day, then unlock live — and know how to pause and turn it off.

Live trading is switched on **per strategy**, from the **Armed** tab. Each armed
strategy gets its own account, its own size, and its own
[behaviour settings](/live-trading/when-things-go-sideways) — nothing is global.

## Switch it on

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the Armed tab and find the strategy">
    Only **intraday** armed strategies offer the control, and only once you have
    a [verified broker connection](/live-trading/connect-a-broker). Press
    **Turn on** on the **Trade live** row.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Pick the connection and the account">
    If you have more than one verified connection, choose it here, then choose
    which of its accounts to trade.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set contracts per signal">
    The number of contracts every entry from this strategy will be for. It is a
    fixed size — Live trading does no position sizing, and never pyramids. Whatever you
    set here is the most this strategy can ever hold.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set what happens when things go sideways">
    Open the **What to do when things go sideways** section and read through it
    once. Every setting has a sensible default, and every one of them can be
    changed later while the strategy is running — but the defaults are the
    behaviour you'll get on the very first signal, so it's worth a minute now.
    See [the full reference](/live-trading/when-things-go-sideways).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Start trading (demo)">
    The button says so on purpose. Every new Live trading strategy starts in demo.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Demo first

<Warning>
  **Live is locked until a strategy has completed a clean demo day.** The **live**
  option in the Mode dropdown stays disabled — labelled *"after a clean demo
  session"* — until this specific strategy has:

  * at least **one completed demo trading day** (a session date earlier than
    today on which real signals were actually applied), and
  * **zero recorded differences** on that history.

  A single divergence — a phantom trade, an unexpected fill, a manual
  intervention — keeps it in demo. That is the point: the demo day is not a
  waiting period, it is a proof.
</Warning>

Once it unlocks, switch **Mode** to `live` on the same row. The change takes
effect immediately, on the next signal.

<Note>
  The mode chooses which broker environment this strategy connects to, and the
  account you picked must exist there. If it doesn't — a demo connection whose
  account list doesn't include it, say — the strategy will not start and Live trading
  turns itself off rather than trading into the wrong place.
</Note>

## What happens on the first signal

* If the strategy wants a **resting entry**, Live trading places it at the broker as a
  bracket order: the entry plus its stop and target, attached, so the protection
  goes live at the moment the entry fills. A level that moves bar to bar is
  modified in place, not cancelled and re-sent.
* If the strategy wants a **market entry**, Live trading sends it and expects a fill
  within about ten seconds.
* **Stops and targets rest at the broker.** A trailing stop is moved by Live trading to
  the level the strategy computes at each bar close — deliberately *not* a
  broker-side trailing order, which would ratchet on ticks and trade a different
  strategy from the one you backtested.
* **Time exits and rule-based exits** are sent by Live trading as market orders, with
  the bracket cancelled first.
* **Partial fills** are real: the bracket is resized to what actually filled.

## Changing settings later

Press **Settings** on the Trade live row, change contracts per signal or any of
the sideways settings, and **Save**. Changes apply to the running strategy from
the next signal onward. They do not retroactively change a position you are
already in — a bracket already resting keeps the size it was placed with.

## Pausing

**Pause** stops new entries going out. What happens to orders and positions you
already have is your
[**When you pause**](/live-trading/when-things-go-sideways#when-you-pause-the-link) setting —
by default, everything stays exactly where it is and keeps being managed.

Pausing the **armed strategy itself** (in the Armed tab) does the same thing to
Live trading: the same setting applies.

## Turning it off

**Turn off** ends Live trading for that strategy. What happens to an open position is
your
[**When you turn Trade live off**](/live-trading/when-things-go-sideways#when-you-turn-trade-live-off)
setting — by default, the position is flattened and working orders are cancelled.
The confirmation dialog tells you which of the two you're about to get.

<Warning>
  **Arming a new version of a strategy ends Live trading on the old one.** AskFutures
  keeps [one armed version per strategy](/guides/live-signals), so arming a
  refinement disarms its predecessor — and Live trading treats that exactly like
  being turned off, applying that setting to any open position. Turn it on again on the newly
  armed version; it does not carry over, and neither do its settings.
</Warning>

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="When things go sideways" icon="triangle-exclamation" href="/live-trading/when-things-go-sideways">
    Every setting, what it governs, and when to change the default.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Positions and controls" icon="table-list" href="/live-trading/positions-and-controls">
    Where you watch it, and the buttons that stop it.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>