Question about managing drawdown with multiple open positions

Hey everyone,

I'm still relatively new to managing a portfolio with multiple open positions across different asset classes, and I'm finding myself a bit perplexed when it comes to overall drawdown. I understand position sizing and risk per trade (e.g., 1-2% of capital), but when I have, say, three or four trades on, each with its own stop, and then the market takes a nasty turn, my total exposure can feel a lot higher than the sum of individual risks. It's like the correlation goes to 1 just when you don't want it to.

I've seen mentions of 'portfolio level stops' or 'max drawdown limits,' but I'm struggling to implement something practical that doesn't just arbitrarily close everything. How do you all approach this? Do you have a dynamic way to reduce size on new trades once your overall floating P/L hits a certain negative threshold, or is it more about just accepting the higher variance during certain market conditions? Any insights on managing that aggregate risk would be hugely appreciated.