How Bellwether works

You connected a broker and nothing seems to be happening. That is expected: Bellwether is a desk that works to a clock, not a trading app with a buy button. The same words appear in the How your desk works note on the Overview of a new book.

The day's rhythm

Central time, trading days only. The PM's plan at 08:00 (after a 07:45 research brief on books that turn briefs on), short checks during the day, and an end-of-day pass at 14:48, twelve minutes before the close, where the PM judges the day's closes and parks any order for the next morning's window. After the close the PM writes a short journal. Weekends and exchange holidays are quiet. The trading day has it hour by hour; the note on your Overview shows your book's own next session times.

You don't place trades

The desk proposes; you decide how much of it needs you.

• Manual (the default for a new book): every order the PM proposes waits for your yes or no in the Inbox.
• Semi-automatic: orders under your approval line go through on their own after every risk check; bigger ones wait for you.
• Full: the desk trades on its own inside your limits; every fill notifies you; Pause trading stops it instantly.

You choose the mode on the last step of Connect and change it any time on Strategy › Profile › Autonomy (raising it asks for a typed confirmation and your authenticator code; lowering is one click). In every mode the Executor runs every risk check first and the approval line· Strategy › Profile › Autonomy only decides what waits for you.

Posture and autonomy are two different dials

Posture is how hard the desk pushes: how big positions get, how much of the book is invested, the biggest order, how readily it acts, and the loss halts. It is the fence the Executor enforces on every order in every mode. Autonomy is whether it asks you first. They are independent: Aggressive with Manual and Conservative with Full are both sensible. Both are set on Strategy › Profile; Risk shows the approval line read only, with a link back. Posture vs autonomy has the example that makes it click.

You decide when trading starts

A book is created with trading switched off, so nothing can happen before you have connected an account and seen the last step of Connect. That step asks one more question, Trading: Start trading now (preselected for a paper account: trading is on from the desk's next session) or Keep it paused for now (the desk plans, nothing is bought or sold until you start it). Saving the step records your choice in the audit log as you; starting asks for your authenticator code, and the one you entered a moment ago for the dials still counts. A live account is never switched on by onboarding: the go-live procedure does that, step by step.

While it is paused, the Overview says so in one line until you change your mind: Trading is paused. The desk is planning but nothing will be bought or sold. Press Start trading on that banner (owner or operator; it asks for your code). If you can only read this book, ask the book's operator to start it. The kill switch· Halt (top bar) · Risk header on Risk shows the state and its history; Halt in the top bar pauses trading again at any time, in one tap, and Resume (with your code) clears a halt.

What day one looks like

The desk writes the book's first plan within minutes of setup: the Researcher's brief on the book's universe runs first, then the PM's plan (what the core index sleeve will hold, the first names it opened or is waiting on, and the levels it armed), and the core goes on in that same session when the market is open, or at the next open otherwise. After that, honestly, not much, and that is a success: the desk's own picks wait for their levels to print, and a day with no discretionary trades and a clear reason why is normal; the PM is deliberately slow-handed. What happens when I create a book has the sequence minute by minute. Read the day-one brief, the plan and the journal on Desk; all three are short.

Three doors

• See what it's thinking: the mind card on the Overview says what the PM is watching, what would change its mind, and when it looks again.
• Ask it anything: Consult answers about your book in plain words and can turn "never hold through earnings" into a rule the PM must acknowledge. It never trades.
• Ask for a look at a stock: open any symbol from Markets and press Ask the desk: its view now (a short session, the answer in Inbox › Requests within minutes, at any hour; after the close it answers as a read and says what it would do at the open) or at the next session, or ask it to build a position; the panel says whether an order would wait for your approval.