Daily loss limits only count if you wrote them before 9:15
A limit is a rule if it has a timestamp, and a story if it does not. Also: check the breach on net, not gross.
Everyone has a daily loss limit right up until the third red trade. Then it quietly becomes "one more, because this one is obvious".
The fix is not willpower. It is a timestamp.
Write the number while you are calm
A limit that lived on the morning card at 08:50 can be scored at 15:30. A limit that lived in your head cannot, because you will always win the argument with yourself in hindsight.
One number. Rupees. Saved before the first fill.
The limit broke at roughly 13:20. Four fills happened afterwards. Illustrative journal data, not a live book and not a performance claim.
Check the breach on net, not on the pretty number
Brokerage, STT, exchange fees, stamp duty and GST do not care that your mark-to-market looked like it was still inside the limit. What lands in the bank is net.
If the journal stores charges from the contract note, run the breach test on the same figure the ledger will show you tomorrow.
The fills after the breach are the actual chapter
Most books have them. Tag them. Do not quietly delete them on Sunday so the week looks disciplined.
A limit is not a moral test, and no journal should lock your broker login. But the count of post-limit trades, month after month, is one of the most honest process numbers you will ever keep.
- Limit written before the open, in rupees
- Net day P&L including all charges
- Timestamp of the fill that crossed it
- Number of fills taken after the breach
Key takeaways
- Timestamp the limit before the bell or it is not a rule.
- Grade the day on net P&L, charges included.
- Count the post-breach fills instead of hiding them.
Not advice, not a call. NiyataBook is a personal trading journal, not a SEBI-registered investment adviser or research analyst. Everything above looks backwards at trades that already closed. What happened in a book does not promise what happens next, and F&O can take a year’s savings in a week.