Risk settings & how Bridge sizes your trades
Last updated: 2026-08-23
Bridge Copy Trade sizes every order based on your risk settings, not the leader's. Two customers following the same leader can hold very different position sizes.
The risk model (plain English)
Risk per trade = the capital allocated to the trade. For options, your maximum loss on a long option is the full premium paid (the option can go to $0), so Bridge treats the entire cost of the position as the amount at risk.
- One contract costs premium × 100. A $2.50 option = $250 per contract.
- Bridge buys
floor(your per-trade cap ÷ per-contract cost)contracts. - Never more than the leader. If the leader bought 2, you will never hold more than 2, even if your cap allows more.
Example: your per-trade cap is $500 and the leader enters a $1.55 option. $500 ÷ $155 = 3.2 → you get 3 contracts (if the leader took at least 3).
Re-sizing at fill time
Prices move between the leader's signal and your fill. If the option drifts from $3.33 to $3.40, Bridge recomputes at the fill price — a user sized for 3 at $3.33 may get 2 at $3.40. This keeps you inside your cap even in fast markets.
The caps you control
- Per-trade cap ($): maximum capital committed to any single entry.
- Max contracts: hard ceiling on contracts per position regardless of price.
- Daily loss cap ($): once your realized loss for the day hits this, Bridge stops opening new copied positions until the next session.
Risk tags
Leaders sometimes tag a signal (for example a small, speculative "lotto" play). Tagged signals are automatically scaled down relative to your normal size, and lotto-style plays have their own tighter contract cap. You'll see the applied scaling on the position row.
What sizing is NOT
- It is not a stop-loss calculator. Stops and exits are handled by the exit plan (trim ladder + protective stop), not by entry sizing.
- It is not broker margin math. Your broker enforces its own buying-power rules independently; if the broker rejects for buying power, Bridge records the rejection and does not retry blindly.
Where to change it
Settings → Copy Trading → Risk. Changes apply to the next signal; they never modify positions that are already open.