Exposure during a broker outage
Bit of a brain-teaser for the grizzled veterans in here, as I'm still feeling my way through the operational side of things. I've been thinking about what happens if you're in a decently sized position, say $EURUSD short with a good chunk of capital at risk, and your broker suddenly goes dark – website unresponsive, no phone lines, nothing. I've got my hard stops in, obviously, but if the market keeps moving against you and you can't even see your account or communicate, what's the actual protocol? Are you just effectively naked to the market's whims until they come back online, or is there some industry standard or regulatory protection that kicks in to limit your exposure beyond your last communicated stop? It's the 'can't close a position' scenario that gives me the cold sweats, more than 'missed a good entry'.