Troubleshooting

Diagnostic sequence:

1. **AutoTrading state** — the button in the main MT5 toolbar must be green. If red, click once. 2. **Smiley face** — top-right corner of the chart. Smiling = OK. Sad = algo trading disabled for this EA. Right-click the chart → Expert Advisors → Properties → Common tab → tick "Allow Algorithmic Trading". 3. **Trading hours** — open the EA inputs. Most EAs have `StartHour` and `EndHour` (broker server time, not your local time). The current server-time clock is in the Market Watch panel. 4. **Symbol** — make sure the chart symbol exactly matches the EA's expected symbol. Some brokers add suffixes like `XAUUSD.r` or `XAUUSDx`. Switch chart or set the EA's `Symbol` input. 5. **Logs** — the Experts tab in the Toolbox shows the EA's runtime log. If the EA is rejecting setups it will say why.

Sad face = the EA's code is running but the trading flag is denied. Two settings have to be true for the EA to actually trade:

1. Global AutoTrading button (green in toolbar). 2. Per-EA "Allow Algorithmic Trading" (in the chart's EA Properties → Common).

If both are correct but the face is still sad, restart MT5. Stale algo-trading state occasionally requires a restart to recover. If after restart it is still sad, reattach the EA from the Navigator pane.

MT5 records the exit reason for every trade in the History tab. Common reasons: - **`Stop-loss`** — normal SL hit. Wider SL = fewer early exits but larger losses when wrong. - **`Take-profit`** — normal TP hit. - **`Trailing stop`** — trailing got too close. Loosen the `TrailingStop` input. - **`Time exit`** — session boundary hit. Disable `CloseAtSessionEnd` if you want positions to carry. - **`Manual` / `Close-by`** — you closed it (or another EA did). Check magic number conflicts.

If trades close earlier than expected even with all inputs at defaults, the broker may be applying a margin or maximum-position rule. Check broker terms.

A 10–30% gap between backtest and live results is normal. A 70%+ gap suggests one of:

1. **Wrong tick model** — the Strategy Tester at "every tick based on real ticks" is closest to reality. Anything less accurate will lie. 2. **Spread/commission mismatch** — set the tester to use your broker's actual spread schedule. 3. **Curve fitting** — if the EA was optimised on the exact backtest period, future performance will be worse. Always do an out-of-sample test on a different range. 4. **Survivorship** — published backtests sometimes select the best period. Look at full 10+ year backtests, not just the last 12 months.

Live performance on our reference accounts is what we actually trust, not historical backtests.

MT5 logs every connection event in the Journal tab of the Toolbox. Look at the exact disconnect timestamps:

- **Random disconnects every few minutes** — typically network instability. VPS solves it. - **Same time every day** — broker maintenance window. Normal. - **After every restart of the machine** — firewall/antivirus blocking. Whitelist MT5. - **Only during news events** — broker may rate-limit during high load. Switch to ECN broker.

For mission-critical setups, use a dedicated VPS in the broker's data centre and disable Windows automatic updates (or schedule them for weekends).

Free margin = equity − used margin. When you open a position, the broker locks up a fraction of your equity as margin (1% at 1:100 leverage, 0.5% at 1:200, etc.). If the EA wants to open a position that would consume more margin than is currently free, the broker rejects with "no money" or "not enough margin".

Fix: reduce per-trade risk in the EA inputs. The math: - Risk % = MaxLot × StopLossPips × PipValue ÷ Equity

If your account is $500 and the EA is computing 0.1 lot but max allowed is 0.02 at your leverage, drop the `RiskPercent` until lot sizing matches.

MT5 records the full P&L breakdown per trade: profit/loss, commission, swap, taxes (if any). When comparing your live P&L to the EA's published stats, make sure both numbers refer to the same line:

- **Gross P&L** = trade profit before commission/swap. - **Net P&L** = gross − commission − swap.

EAs publish gross unless they specifically say "net". Your account shows net. The gap is the broker's execution cost.

For multi-day positions (Trendopedia, Breakopedia), swap charges accumulate every night. A 10-day position with -$2 swap per day costs $20 even before market move. Some brokers offer swap-free "Islamic" accounts that skip this.

Two log surfaces:

1. **Experts tab (Toolbox)** — anything an EA writes via `Print()` or `Comment()`. This is where you find why an EA accepted or rejected a setup. 2. **Journal tab (Toolbox)** — MT5-level events: connections, disconnects, AutoTrading state changes, account modifications.

If you need to share a log with support, navigate to File → Open Data Folder → MQL5 → Logs and attach the relevant day's file. The on-screen log is rolling and truncates older entries.

Critical-severity bugs (the EA opens unauthorised positions, the EA crashes MT5, the EA leaks position state) receive same-day patches. Other bugs are batched into the next regular release.

For third-party EAs in the catalog, please also report the issue here so we can flag it in the review — we cannot directly patch a third-party EA but we can warn other buyers and downgrade the rating until the author addresses it.

The public Telegram channel (t.me/fxroboteasy) carries release notes for every patch.