The curse of the "Red Cursor"

[Emerogork]

This may sound like a programming question but it really is not. I would like to understand that I am seeing though.
In short: Sometimes I find a "red cursor" on my recording session and it has an arrow pointing to it that seems to start at the left side of the track. This red cursor exists at the end of a previously recorded track in the same session. The situation prevents me from scrolling to the end of the track being recorded.

Discussion:

I have start and stop batch files activated hourly for 5 minutes each from 5:27 to 8:35 on weekday mornings.
Start -- Stop
5:27 - 5:32,
6:27 - 6:35,
7:27 - 7:35,
8:27 - 8:35.

I then start the recording again as 9:00am without a scheduled stop.
After 9am it is appears to be recording as I get the VU Meters showing audio activity but the audio track is not showing the present activity as it does with the previous four recording sessions. A red cursor shows at the 5 minute mark and there is an arrow pointing from the left to the cursor immediately below the time marks just above the first track. When I use the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom, the red cursor seems to demand to stay on the screen. I cannot scroll to the end or beginning of the track being recorded. "Selection Start" and "Audio position" meters are at 5 minutes and "End Length" meter is at 0.

I have not used the computer during this time and no other activity has happened to my knowledge. All five times, I call the same batch file to start the recorder.

I click "Stop", the red cursor and arrow disappear. I can now scroll to the end of the latest track and it has in fact recorded up until the time I stopped it. I use the same automated starts and stops batch files reliably about 32 times on weekends without this happening. The error situation mentioned is a reliable phenomenon on weekdays only.

What might be happening?
What does the red cursor and arrow mean?
If I those two features had merit and a needed to do it manually, how might I?

For the most part it is not a big deal as I am not losing any recorded signal but it is a strange happening. This might sound a bit like much ado about nothing but it will satisfy a curiosity. It may show me another feature of Audacity that I could make to work to my benefit.

[steve]

Are you describing "Play Region Lock": http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/ti ... lay-region
(also see the very end of that page)