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Stopline Trade Manager EZ for MetaTrader 5: User Manual

Version 1.02. The same text as the PDF manual (A4; US Letter), without the inputs appendix. For MetaTrader 4, see the MetaTrader 4 manual.

Stopline Trade Manager EZ is software. It sizes and places the orders you set up and manages them by the rules you choose. It offers no trading account, holds no money and gives no advice or trade recommendations: you decide every trade. Trading carries a risk of loss. A stop or a daily loss limit can act at a worse price than the one you set, for example when the price gaps.

1 About This Manual

Stopline Trade Manager EZ MT5 (in this manual: the EA) is an Expert Advisor for MetaTrader 5 that places and manages your own trades from one compact window. You decide the direction, the stop loss and the target; the EA calculates the lot from the risk you choose, sends the order and lets you manage the position: close all or part of it, move the stop to breakeven, remove the stop loss or the take profit, and take profit in up to five steps. It gives no signals and does not open trades by itself.

What it is. A trade panel: the lot from your risk, market and pending orders of every kind planned with lines on the chart, take-profit levels, price alerts, a confirmation before every order, closing and managing the positions it opened, hotkeys, four themes and nine languages.

What it is not. The EA has no trailing stop, no automatic breakeven, no automatic partial closes, no virtual orders or hidden stops, no statistics and no screenshots. Breakeven and partial closes are there, but you trigger them yourself.

This manual describes version 1.02. It covers the installation, a quick start, the window control by control, the objects the EA draws on the chart, hotkeys, presets, the messages the EA shows, and it ends with a glossary and the complete list of inputs.

Video manual (YouTube, with chapters): https://youtu.be/30HypJRZXqs

Conventions

The screenshots show EURUSD on the H1 chart of a MetaQuotes demo account and the window in each of its color themes. The theme does not change any function.

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2 Installation

Stopline Trade Manager EZ MT5 is sold on the MQL5 Market only. The terminal downloads and installs a Market product by itself, so there are no files to copy.

2.1 Requirements

• MetaTrader 5, logged in to a trading account (demo or real, at any broker, with hedging or netting); on a Mac, MetaTrader 5 for macOS (Section 2.11).
• An MQL5.community account (free registration at mql5.com), which is needed to buy and install products from the Market.
• Algo Trading allowed in the terminal (see Section 2.4).

2.2 Link Your MQL5 Account

Open Tools › Options (Ctrl+O) and select the Community tab. The terminal uses this account to download what you buy.

• If you already have an MQL5.community account, click If you have an account, please login (highlighted in the figure below), enter your login and password and press OK.
• Without an account, enter the login you want and your e-mail address and press Register. The password is sent to that e-mail address; enter it with your login as described above.

2.3 Buy the EA

You can buy the EA in either of two places:

• In the terminal: open the Toolbox (Ctrl+T), select its Market tab, search for Stopline Trade Manager EZ and press Buy.
• On the product page at mql5.com, logged in with the same MQL5.community account.

As soon as the payment is complete, the terminal downloads the EA into the folder MQL5\Experts\Market\. Each purchase includes the number of activations shown on the product page. An activation binds the EA to the computer on which it was installed (its hardware and operating system), not to a trading account: on that computer you can use the EA with any account at any broker.

2.4 Enable Algo Trading

An Expert Advisor can send orders only while Algo Trading is enabled. Press the Algo Trading button on the toolbar (or Ctrl+E); it shows a green triangle when Algo Trading is on.

2.5 Find the EA in the Navigator

Open the Navigator (View › Navigator or Ctrl+N) and expand Expert Advisors › Market. The EA is listed as Stopline Trade Manager EZ MT5.

2.6 Attach the EA to a Chart

Open a chart of the symbol you want to trade and drag Stopline Trade Manager EZ MT5 from the Navigator onto the chart, or double-click it. The EA dialog opens. A chart runs one Expert Advisor at a time; open one chart per symbol.

2.7 Review the EA Dialog

The dialog has two tabs. You can open it again at any time with F7 while the chart is active.

On the Common tab, tick Allow Algo Trading. Without it the EA runs and draws its window and lines, but every order is refused and the health dot of the window turns amber (see Section 4.1).

The Inputs tab lists the starting value of every setting in nine groups: Panel, Trade, Risk, RR, Lines, Breakeven now, Alerts, Hotkeys and System. Most of them you set once; the window itself changes the lot, the risk, the stops, the order type, the theme, the size, the language and the presets, and it remembers your changes per symbol (see Chapter 11). Appendix A lists all inputs. Press OK to start the EA.

2.8 Check That the EA Is Running

The name of the EA appears in the top-right corner of the chart with a hat icon, which is blue while Algo Trading is allowed, and the window opens on the chart.

2.9 Install on Another Computer

Link the same MQL5.community account on the other computer (Section 2.2), open the Market tab of the Toolbox, select Purchased and press Install next to the EA. Each installation on a new computer uses one activation. Reinstalling the operating system or changing the hardware also counts as a new computer.

2.10 Updates and Removal

Updates of a purchased product are free. When a new version is available, the Purchased section of the Market tab offers an Update button next to the EA. Your settings and presets are kept, because the EA stores them in its data folder (see Chapter 16).

To remove the EA from a chart, right-click the chart, select List of Expert Advisors, select the EA and remove it. Attaching another Expert Advisor to the chart also replaces it.

2.11 On a Mac

MetaQuotes provides MetaTrader 5 for macOS (macOS 10.15.7 Catalina or later, Intel and Apple silicon). Download the installer from metatrader5.com or from your broker and run it: it sets up everything the platform needs by itself. Agree when it asks to install additional packages (Mono, Gecko). The terminal is the same program as on any other computer, so every step of this chapter is the same. A few things differ:

• Keys: MetaTrader’s shortcuts use the Control key, not Command: Ctrl+E is Control and E. The function keys usually need Fn, so the EA dialog opens with Fn+F7, unless the macOS keyboard settings use F1, F2 and so on as standard function keys.
• Right-click: click with two fingers on the trackpad, or hold Control and click.
• Data folder: in Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder and enter ~/Library/Application Support/net.metaquotes.wine.metatrader5/drive_c/Program Files/MetaTrader 5; the EA’s folders (Chapter 16) are in MQL5/Files inside it.
• Fonts: the window is designed with Segoe UI, which a Mac does not have. The EA then uses Tahoma, which MetaTrader brings along (for Chinese and Japanese a Mac font such as PingFang or Hiragino), so the text looks slightly different; the Experts tab says so when the EA starts.
• Activations: each Mac counts as one computer (Section 2.9).

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3 Quick Start: A Risk-Sized Trade in Under a Minute

This chapter places a market order with the default settings. The figure below shows the window and its lines right after the EA starts.

1. Attach the EA. The window opens with LC (Lot Calc) on: the lot is calculated from the Risk field (1% of the balance by default) and the distance to the stop loss (SL). The entry line (blue-grey), the stop-loss line (orange) and the take-profit line (teal) are drawn on the chart. On a fresh start the SL and TP lines are placed at 15% and 30% of the visible price range, so they are easy to reach.
2. Set the risk and the stop. Type a risk and a stop distance, or move the SL and TP lines on the chart: point at a line and drag the tab that appears (Section 8.1). The line labels and the summary line below the fields show the lot, the risk in money and in percent, the reward and the reward-to-risk ratio (RR).
3. Press BUY or SELL. The lines show one direction. The button for the other direction first flips the lines (the stop loss and the take profit change sides); the next press sends the order. A confirmation lists every detail: Enter confirms, Esc cancels. To skip the confirmation, tick Don’t ask again or turn on One-click trading on the panel settings page (Section 4.2).
4. To place a pending order instead, drag the entry line away from the price (the order type follows automatically) or choose the type in the drop-down list, then press PLACE. While a pending type is selected, BUY and SELL are unavailable, so a market order cannot be sent by mistake. Set the type back to Market (or press the M button, the magnet) to trade at market again.
5. To take profit in steps, press +TP. A row with a distance, a share of the lot and a remove button (x) appears below the SL and TP fields, and a dotted TP1 line appears on the chart. Up to five levels are possible (see Section 5.4).

These five steps are all a trade needs. The following chapters describe every control, closing and managing the positions, and the objects on the chart.

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4 The Window

4.1 Header

The header shows the state of the EA and opens the panel settings.

The first row shows the symbol, the spread in points (Sp), the commission per lot (Com) and the health dot:

• Teal: the EA is ready to trade.
• Amber: Algo Trading is off (on the toolbar or in the EA dialog), or the last trade request failed.
• Orange: the terminal has no connection to the trade server, or the daily loss limit has been reached.

The second row shows the clock (server time, local time, both, or GMT: the input Inp_Panel_TimeDisplay), the RR and LC chips, which light up while the risk/reward link and the lot calculation are on (Section 5.1), and the preset drop-down list, which loads a saved preset with one click.

Three buttons sit at the right of the first row: the sliders open the panel settings (Section 4.2), the dot switches between the light and the dark theme, and the minus sign minimizes the window to a toolbar (Section 4.5). Drag the first row to move the window; the position is saved.

4.2 Panel Settings

The sliders button in the header opens the panel settings in place of the trade page. OK at the bottom, or the sliders button again, returns to the trade page.

4.3 Tooltips

Rest the mouse pointer on a button, switch or drop-down list for half a second and a short hint explains it, abbreviations included, in the language of the window. An unavailable (greyed-out) control explains why it is unavailable. The input Inp_Panel_Tooltips turns the hints off.

4.4 Size, Scrolling and Themes

Drag the grip in the bottom-right corner of the window to resize it: the width rearranges every row and the height sets a maximum. The window never grows taller than the chart; when the page does not fit, scroll it with the mouse wheel, the scroll bar at the right edge or Tab (Section 4.6). Drag the height past the content to return to “fit the content”. Scale on the panel settings page changes the size of every element; the window also follows the display scaling of your screen.

There are four themes and a High contrast switch that works with each of them. Light (warm paper) and Dark (ink) use the colors of this manual; Slate (a cool light grey) and Midnight (navy) are their cool counterparts. Dark is the default. The colors mean the same thing in every theme, as in the Stopline logo: teal is buy, the take profit and profit; orange is sell, the stop loss and loss.

4.5 Minimized Toolbar

The minus button in the header (or M) reduces the window to one row with the essential buttons: BUY, SELL, PLACE, Close (every position of the symbol) and Lines. The plus button restores the full window. The input Inp_Panel_StartMinimized starts the window in this form.

4.6 Keyboard Field Navigation

MetaTrader does not let an Expert Advisor give the keyboard focus to an input field, so the window provides its own navigation: Tab highlights the next field (with an accent border), NumPlus and NumMinus change it by one step, exactly like its spin buttons, and Esc removes the highlight. Click a field to type into it; Enter applies the value. Hotkeys do not work while an input field has the keyboard focus.

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5 Planning a Trade

The trade page plans and sends an order. The plan is visible twice, in the fields and on the chart as lines, and both always show the same values.

5.1 Controls

5.2 Pending and Stop-Limit Orders

Drag the entry line above or below the market and the order type follows: above the price a buy becomes a Buy Stop, below it a Buy Limit, and the sell orders mirror this. For a stop-limit order, choose the type in the drop-down list and set Lim; a dotted line shows the limit price. BUY and SELL remain unavailable while a pending type is selected; rest the pointer on them to read why.

5.3 Order Confirmation

Before a market order is sent, the confirmation lists the direction, lot, entry, stop loss and take profit (as prices and in pips), the risk and reward in money, the RR, the margin and the spread. Enter or BUY / SELL sends the order; Esc or Cancel cancels it. Don’t ask again turns on one-click trading; the One-click trading switch on the panel settings page (Section 4.2) turns it off again. Confirm close on the same page (input Inp_Trade_ConfirmClose) asks before positions are closed.

5.4 Take-Profit Levels

+TP adds a row with a distance (or a price in Price mode), a share of the lot and a remove button (x) below the SL and TP fields, and a dotted TP1 line on the chart. Type the distance or move the line; the share says how much of the position closes at that level, and whatever remains runs to the final take profit. Press +TP again for TP2, TP3 and so on, up to five levels. The levels are kept in order, the nearest first.

A position keeps the levels it was opened with. They are drawn as dotted TP1 #ticket lines that you can move per position, and changing the window later never changes a running trade. Pending orders keep their levels until they are filled. The EA closes the share of a level when the price reaches it, so the levels act only while the terminal is running.

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6 Risk and Lot

With LC on, the lot is the risk divided by the loss one lot would make at the stop loss:

lot = risk ÷ (stop distance in ticks × tick value + commission per lot)

The result is rounded down to the symbol’s volume step, so the real risk is never above the risk you set. When the risk is too small for the minimum lot, the plan says so and BUY and SELL stay unavailable; the EA never rounds a lot up above your risk.

6.1 Risk Base

The input Inp_Risk_Mode sets what the Risk field means. Inp_Risk_Value is its starting value; the field changes it on the window.

6.2 What the Calculation Includes

• Commission (Inp_Risk_CommissionPerLot): the round-trip commission per lot in the account currency, added to the loss per lot.
• Spread (Inp_Risk_AddSpread): adds the spread to the stop distance and removes it from the reward.
• Tick value: the EA uses the value the account books. On a server that publishes a different value the EA says so once and sizes with the booked one; Inp_Risk_CustomTickValue sets a value by hand.
• Pip size (Inp_Risk_PipOption): automatic (10 points on symbols with 3 or 5 digits, otherwise 1 point), or fixed.

6.3 Limits and Guards

The account’s own limits are checked before every order as well: the number of pending orders the account allows, the symbol’s volume limit, the stop level (a stop loss, take profit or pending price too close to the market) and the freeze level (no change close to the market). A refused order is not sent; a message names the limit.

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7 Managing and Closing Positions

7.1 Manage Mode

Manage replaces the pending-order buttons with position management buttons and lists the open positions of the chart symbol, each with a tick box, its ticket, side, lot, entry price and live profit or loss. Up to ten positions are listed; with more open, a line below the list says how many more there are, and you select those on the chart.

The buttons act on the ticked positions. With nothing ticked they act on every position of the chart symbol. Select all ticks every listed position. A scope line above the list states what the buttons will act on, for example Scope: 2 of 5 positions selected.

7.2 Selecting Positions

You can also select a position on the chart: Ctrl+click its position label (the label turns to the accent color and shows [x]), or choose Select for the Manage buttons in its position menu (Section 8.3). Both methods change the same selection as the tick boxes. The selection is not saved; it only applies to the next actions, including their hotkeys.

7.3 Breakeven Now

Breakeven moves the stop loss of each position to its entry price, plus the offset of the input Inp_BE_Offset (in points, beyond the entry in the position’s favor). A position whose price is still too close to the entry for the broker’s stop level keeps its stop, and a message says so.

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8 Chart Objects

The EA draws its lines, labels and buttons on the chart. This chapter explains how to move them and what each one means.

8.1 Moving a Line

Point at the line you want to move. As soon as the pointer is close to it, a small tab in the line’s color appears under the pointer with the line’s name (Entry, SL, TP, TP2, Alert and so on), and the line is drawn thicker, so you can see which line you are about to take even on a busy chart. Press on the tab and drag it: the line follows the pointer and the tab shows the price, for a stop loss or take profit also the distance from the entry in pips. While you drag the entry, stop-loss or take-profit line, the lot, the risk and the reward on the window and the line labels follow the pointer. Release the mouse button to place the line.

This works for every line the EA draws for you to move: the entry, stop loss and take profit, the take-profit levels, the take-profit levels of a position and alert lines. The lines of open positions and alerts take their new price when you release the button.

If a line cannot go where you release it, for example a stop loss above the entry of a buy, it returns to where it was and a message explains why. For the stop loss and the take profit the tab already turns into an orange outline while the pointer is at such a price.

The tab does not appear over the window, over a position label or over the small buttons at the right end of a line, so they stay easy to click. A press on the tab of the entry, stop-loss or take-profit line without moving it selects that line for the keys described below. The input Inp_Lines_Grips turns the tab off.

The usual MetaTrader method works as well: double-click a line to select it (small square markers appear), drag it, and double-click it again to deselect it. If you prefer a single click, turn on Select objects by single mouse click in Tools › Options › Charts; the terminal then selects every object with one click.

You can also move a line without the mouse: Q selects the next line of the plan, Shift+Up and Shift+Down move it by one step, and Shift+L, Shift+T and Shift+P place the stop loss, the take profit or the entry at the mouse pointer. The small buttons on the lines (L, x) and the position labels react to a single click.

8.2 The Planning Lines

• Entry (blue-grey), SL (orange) and TP (teal), with shaded zones between them (input Inp_Lines_RangeShow).
• The labels show the direction, volume, price, pips, profit or loss in money and in percent and the RR. The input Inp_Lines_FontSize sets their size.
• A line stays exactly where you release it, and the window follows.
• RR lock (the RR button on): moving the SL line moves the TP line and the other way round, so the ratio holds. A locked line (L) keeps its price and the ratio follows instead. With RR off the lines are independent.
• Magnet (M or G) returns the entry line to the market price. With Entry line follows the market price on (the default, Inp_Lines_AlwaysMarket) it stays there.
• Moving the entry line away from the market turns the plan into the matching pending order type.
• Buttons on the lines: L on the TP line locks the take profit and L on the SL line locks the stop loss; x on the entry line hides the lines.
• Inp_Lines_Bars places the SL and TP beyond the highest high and lowest low of the last N bars instead of the automatic distances.

8.3 Position Labels and the Position Menu

Each open position of the chart symbol has a label on its entry line, for example #ticket BUY 0.10 +12.30 USD. Click the label to open the position menu; Ctrl+click it to select or deselect the position for the Manage buttons (Section 7.2).

8.4 Other Objects

• The take-profit levels of a position (TP1 #ticket …): dotted, movable.
• The stop-out line: the price at which the account would reach its stop-out level with the open volume of the symbol (input Inp_Lines_StopOut, off by default).
• Expiration markers of pending orders: vertical dotted lines at the expiry time (input Inp_Lines_DrawExpiration).
• Alert lines (amber, dashed): see Chapter 9.

The input Inp_Lines_HideLevels hides the terminal’s own trading levels (H switches them). The EA only deletes its own objects (their names start with TA<chart id>_); lines that you draw yourself are never touched.

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9 Alerts and Notifications

• Price alerts. The ! button places an amber, dashed alert line a few pips above the market; A places it at the mouse pointer. Drag the line by its tab to the level you want (Section 8.1); x deletes it and Shift+A removes all alert lines. The alert fires when the Bid crosses the line, and the line is removed after its last repetition.
• Delivery. The input Inp_Alert_Type is the sum of the methods you want: 1 pop-up, 2 sound, 4 push notification, 8 e-mail. The default, 3, is pop-up and sound. Inp_Alert_MaxIterations and Inp_Alert_TimeoutSec repeat the alert, Inp_Alert_Sound sets the sound. Push notifications and e-mail need the Notifications and Email tabs of the terminal options.

Notifications. Short messages in the top-right corner of the chart (click one to dismiss it) report every action of the EA and every problem: trade errors, spread limit, maximum lot, a missing cross rate, Algo Trading off and the daily loss limit. Chapter 17 lists the most common ones.

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10 Hotkeys

Every hotkey is an input of the Hotkeys group and can be changed there. Write a key as B, Shift+S, Ctrl+Shift+X, Num1, NumPlus or Shift+Up; leave the input empty to turn the hotkey off. The terminal keeps every combination with Alt for itself, so no hotkey uses Alt. Hotkeys do nothing while an input field has the keyboard focus or a confirmation is open; Esc closes a dialog or menu and removes a field highlight.

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11 Settings, Presets and Precedence

Settings come from three places:

1. Inputs (the EA dialog): the starting values.
2. Saved settings: with Inp_Sys_SaveSettings on (the default), the window remembers every change per symbol in the data folder.
3. Presets: named sets of settings that you save and load yourself, on the panel settings page (Section 4.2) or with the preset list in the header.

Precedence. On a normal start (a restart of the terminal, a change of timeframe or a reinstallation of the same version) the saved settings take precedence over the inputs, so the window returns as you left it. When you change inputs in the EA dialog, the inputs take precedence and overwrite the saved settings. With Inp_Sys_SaveSettings off, nothing is remembered and every start uses the inputs. Loading a preset replaces the current settings until you change them again.

Positions keep their own take-profit levels. Changing the window later never changes a running trade.

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12 Hedging and Netting Accounts

• Hedging (several positions per symbol): every order opens a separate position with its own ticket, label and take-profit levels.
• Netting (one position per symbol): a new deal merges into the existing position, and an opposite deal reduces or reverses it.

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13 Setting the Guards for Account Rules

Many trading accounts come with rules: a daily loss limit, a maximum loss and sometimes limits on the number of open trades or the lot size. The EA enforces the limits that you configure (Section 6.3). It does not know the rules of your account, so read them and set the guards with room to spare.

• Daily loss guard (inputs Inp_Risk_DailyLossOn, Inp_Risk_DailyLoss, Inp_Risk_DailyLossPct): the loss of the day is the closed result of today plus the floating result of the open positions the EA manages; the limit is an amount in the account currency or a percentage of the current balance. The guard blocks new trades; it does not close open positions.
• Many rules measure the daily limit from the balance or the equity at the start of the day. Set the guard below the limit of your account.
• Max trades, maximum exposure per symbol and the lot limit keep the number of positions and their size within bounds.
• The risk base “% of balance at the start of the previous day” keeps the risk base constant throughout the day.
• The spread limit and the trading session check keep orders out of wide spreads and closed sessions.

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14 Running with Stopline Trade Manager

Stopline Trade Manager EZ and Stopline Trade Manager MT5 are separate products. Each has its own magic number (EZ: 20260929) and its own data folder, so both can run in one terminal, on different charts, without touching each other’s trades, settings or chart objects.

Moving to Stopline Trade Manager. To let Stopline Trade Manager MT5 manage the positions that EZ opened, attach it to the chart and set its input Inp_Trade_Magic to 20260929 (or 0 for every position of the symbol). The take-profit levels of those positions stay with EZ; set new ones in Stopline Trade Manager if you want them. The settings files of the two products are not shared: each product starts from its own inputs. A settings file copied from one product’s folder into the other’s is not read: the Experts tab names it, and the inputs apply.

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15 The Strategy Tester

The EA can be loaded in the Strategy Tester. In visual mode the window and the lines are drawn, but the tester does not pass mouse clicks, drags or typing to an Expert Advisor, so the window cannot be operated there; push notifications and e-mail alerts are not available and the EA reports this. In a non-visual test the EA opens one BUY position with the minimum volume, a stop loss and a take profit, and closes it one hour of test time later (after the session, guard and free-margin checks), because the automatic check of the MQL5 Market requires a trade operation.

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16 Files and Folders

The EA stores its files in the data folder of the terminal. Open the data folder with File › Open Data Folder (Ctrl+Shift+D); on a Mac, see Section 2.11 for its place in Finder.

Input sets (.set files) in MQL5\Presets\ are loaded with Load on the Inputs tab of the EA dialog.

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17 Messages and Troubleshooting

Logs. The Experts tab of the terminal’s Toolbox shows what the EA does; the input Inp_Sys_LogLevel sets the detail.

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18 Support

Questions and problem reports go to the Comments section of the product page on mql5.com, or as a private message to the seller on mql5.com. Please include the version (shown in the Experts tab when the EA starts), the symbol, and the lines of the Experts tab around the problem.

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19 Glossary

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20 Version History

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21 Risk Disclaimer

Trading carries a risk of loss, and a loss can be larger than you planned. Stopline Trade Manager EZ is a tool for placing and managing your own trades; it gives no signals, advice or promise of results.

The EA executes what you set. An incorrect setting, a lost connection, a closed terminal, slippage, price gaps, requotes or broker rules can lead to results you did not plan. Test every new setup on a demo account first. Take-profit levels and price alerts work only while the terminal is running. The figures in this manual are examples, not expectations.

MetaTrader and MQL5 are trademarks of MetaQuotes Ltd.

Contents

A All Inputs

The inputs of version 1.02 in the order of the EA dialog, with their default values. The label is the text shown in the dialog.

Every input with its default and range is listed in Appendix A of the PDF manual.