The connection habit that saved me a session

this is the single most useful thing in this board. status lights lie.

Adding it to my checklist as line zero.

The part people underrate is what a stale session does to your risk math. If your stop order never actually reached the broker, your position size was calculated against a loss cap that doesn't exist, you're effectively running an undefined downside, and no sizing formula survives that. So I'd extend Pete's test: confirm the exit path works, not just the entry.

Learned this the expensive way. Sat there watching a stop that I was sure was working, and it was sitting in my app pretending. The position was fine, my heart rate was not.

crypto version of this is fun because the exchange never says stale, it just quietly rejects on the first order and by then price has moved. i do a 1 dollar test now, cheapest insurance my degen self ever bought

Worth timing the round trip too, not just that it comes back. A test fill that takes four seconds when it usually takes under one is telling you something before anything says disconnected.

Line zero for me too!! I trade the first ten minutes and there is zero time to debug a dead session when the thing is already moving. Fifteen seconds before, or fifteen minutes of pain after.