Stopline Trade Manager › Guides

What is a trade manager EA?

By Brendon, a trader for 15 years and the maker of Stopline Trade Manager. Updated 19 October 2026.

A trade manager EA is an Expert Advisor for MetaTrader 5 or MetaTrader 4 that places and manages trades you decide on yourself. It works out the lot from your risk, sends the order with its stops, then moves the stop, closes parts and exits by rules you set; it does not choose trades.

What a trade manager EA does

It covers the work between your decision and the exit:

• Sizing: the lot from a risk amount or percentage and the distance to the stop loss.
• Entry: market and pending orders sent with the stop loss and take profit attached, set on the chart or typed in a panel.
• Management: breakeven, a trailing stop, partial closes at set levels, several take-profit levels.
• Exits: closing everything, a side, a percentage or only the winners or losers with one press.
• Guards: limits you set, such as a daily loss limit or a maximum number of open trades.

The same kind of tool is often called a trade panel or a trade assistant. An EA that finds and opens trades by itself is a trading robot, a different kind of product.

What MetaTrader does without one

MetaTrader 5 and MetaTrader 4 take the order volume in lots, not from a risk amount, and keep one stop loss and one take profit per position on the broker's server. Moving a stop to the entry, closing part of a position or taking profit in steps is done by hand. The one management rule the terminal runs by itself is its Trailing Stop, set from a position's context menu at a fixed distance. It runs in the terminal, not on the server, and in MetaTrader 5 it moves a position's stop at most once every 10 seconds.

Where it runs

An EA runs inside the terminal, on the chart it is attached to. A stop loss or take profit it sends to the broker stays on the server. Anything it does by itself, such as moving a stop, closing a part or closing at a hidden level, waits while the terminal is closed, asleep or disconnected. For trades you hold while away from the computer, run the terminal on a VPS.

A checklist for choosing a trade manager EA

Each point can be checked on a demo account in a few minutes, or answered from the manual.

1. The lot comes from the tick value the account books. The loss per lot at the stop depends on the tick value, and some servers publish a tick value that differs from what the account actually books on some symbols. A lot sized from the wrong figure risks more, or less, than you set. Check: on a symbol quoted in a currency other than your account's, risk a fixed amount, let the stop be hit, and compare the booked loss with the amount you set (commission and slippage aside).
2. The lot is rounded down to the volume step. 0.437 lots should become 0.43, not 0.44. A risk too small for the minimum lot should be refused with a message, not rounded up to the minimum. Check: set a risk and a stop that give an odd lot, then one that gives less than the minimum.
3. A magic-number or symbol filter. A manager that trails or closes every position on the account also acts on other EAs' trades and on trades you opened from your phone. Look for a magic-number setting and know what 0 or "all" means. Check: open a trade by hand on the same symbol, press the manager's close-all button, and see what closes.
4. MetaTrader 5 netting accounts. On a netting account a second buy merges into the first position at an average price, and a sell reduces it. Levels and percentages must follow the merged position. Check: on a netting demo, add to a managed position and look at where its partial-close and breakeven levels sit.
5. What happens while the terminal is off. Know which levels sit on the broker's server and which only inside the EA: hidden stops, virtual pending orders, partial-close levels, trailing and breakeven need the terminal running. Check: open a trade, close the terminal, and look at the position from MetaTrader on another device. What you see there is what protects the trade.
6. MetaTrader 4's new ticket after a partial close. MetaTrader 4 closes part of a position by closing it and reopening the rest under a new ticket, with the comment from #<old ticket>. A manager that keys its state on the ticket loses the levels already reached, the trailing and the hidden stops of the rest. Check: on MetaTrader 4, close part of a managed position and watch whether the remaining levels still act on the rest.
7. No level fires twice after a restart. If the manager forgets which partial-close levels were done, a restart can close another part at a level that already closed. Check: let one level close, restart the terminal, and watch the position.
8. Checks before sending. Servers refuse a stop closer to the price than the stop level, a change inside the freeze level and a volume outside the symbol's limits. A manager should catch these before sending and say why in words, not a return code. Check: set a stop a few points from the price and press buy.
9. Where you can try it. MetaTrader does not pass mouse clicks, drags or typing to an EA in the Strategy Tester, so a trade panel cannot be operated there. Check: try the panel on a demo account; a tester run only shows whether it loads.

How Stopline Trade Manager and EZ answer the checklist

Point	Stopline Trade Manager	Stopline Trade Manager EZ
1. Tick value	The lot uses the tick value the account books. A message says so when the published figure differs; Tick val on the Settings tab sets one by hand.	The same; the input Inp_Risk_CustomTickValue sets one by hand.
2. Rounding	Rounded down to the volume step. A risk too small for the minimum lot shows "Risk too small for the minimum lot" instead of rounding up; only a Lot limit minimum you set raises the lot, and the plan says so.	The same.
3. Filter	Manages only positions with its magic number on the chart symbol. Magic 0 manages every position; Manage all symbols extends it to every symbol. The Close tab can also close by magic number or ticket.	Acts on its own magic number on the chart symbol (0: every position of the symbol). Runs beside Stopline Trade Manager without touching its trades.
4. Netting	Hedging and netting accounts. On netting, the merged position is the basis for partial-close percentages and RR levels; Netting calc (beta) previews the merged lot and the average price.	Hedging and netting accounts; a new deal merges into the existing position.
5. Terminal off	Stop loss and take profit sit on the server unless you hide them. Partial-close levels, trailing, breakeven, hidden stops, virtual orders and the time manager need the terminal running; their state is saved and resumes after a restart.	Stop loss and take profit always sit on the server. The take-profit levels close their shares only while the terminal runs, and in MetaTrader 4 so do the stop-limit orders the EA holds.
6. MT4 ticket	Follows the position to its new ticket, keeps the levels already reached and the hidden stops, and counts it as one trade in the statistics and the journal.	Follows the position to its new ticket and keeps its take-profit levels.
7. Restart	Each partial-close level closes once per position, also after a restart.	The take-profit levels of each position are saved and survive a restart.
8. Checks	Every request is checked first: stop level, freeze level, volume limits and the account's order limit. A refused order is not sent, and a message names the reason.	The same.
9. Trying it	The panel draws in the tester's visual mode but cannot be operated there; a non-visual test makes one validation trade. Try it on a demo account.	The same.

Both editions run on MetaTrader 5 and MetaTrader 4 and use no DLLs. EZ keeps every exit one press away and closes its take-profit levels by itself; Stopline Trade Manager adds automatic breakeven, seven trailing stop types, partial closes at up to ten levels, hidden stops, virtual orders and OCO. The details are in the guides on breakeven, hidden stops and partial close.