SETUP · ABOUT 10 MINUTES
Setting up an MT5 trading bot
Seven steps from a fresh broker account to a bot running unattended. The software takes ten minutes; the two steps worth slowing down for are the demo week and the VPS, and they are the two everyone skips.
- 01
Open an MT5 account with gold available
Any MetaTrader 5 broker offering XAUUSD works. Raw spread or ECN account types are strongly preferred — the strategy mix is spread-sensitive and a wide standard-account spread erodes results regardless of entry quality. Note your account number, password and server name; you will need all three.
- 02
Install MetaTrader 5 and log in
Install the terminal, log into your trading account, and confirm XAUUSD appears in Market Watch. If the symbol is missing, right-click Market Watch and show all symbols — a bot cannot trade an instrument the terminal has not loaded.
- 03
Install the bot and enter your licence
Run the installer and paste the licence key from your account. The licence is hardware-locked to one machine or VPS; contact support to move it.
- 04
Connect the bot to the terminal
Point the bot at your running MT5 terminal and confirm it reports the correct account number and balance. A balance of zero almost always means the terminal is not logged in.
- 05
Set risk and daily limits before anything else
Defaults are 1.5% risk per trade at 1:2 reward-to-risk with hard daily profit and loss thresholds. On a prop firm account, set the daily loss limit below the firm drawdown rule with room for spread and slippage. Do this before the bot is allowed near a live account.
- 06
Run a full week on demo, including a news day
This is the step people skip and regret. Watch it take trades and, more importantly, refuse them — the news shield and spread guard only prove themselves when conditions are bad. Read the decision log so you know what normal looks like before real money is involved.
- 07
Move it to a VPS
The bot needs MetaTrader running to trade, so a sleeping laptop is a stopped bot. A Windows VPS keeps it online through reboots and connection drops and reduces execution latency. On the Mobile + PC plan the VPS is included and we run it for you.
Setup questions
How long does setup take?
Under ten minutes for the software itself — install, licence, connect, set your risk. The parts worth not rushing are the demo week and the VPS, and those are the two people skip.
Do I need a VPS to run a trading bot?
You need a Windows machine that stays on. That is either your own PC left running or a VPS. A VPS is the normal production setup because it survives reboots, power cuts and internet drops, and it sits closer to the broker so execution is faster. Our Mobile + PC plan includes one; on the Desktop plan you supply your own or leave your PC on.
Why is the bot not placing trades?
Usually a gate doing its job rather than a fault. Check in this order: is the terminal logged in and is algorithmic trading enabled; is XAUUSD in Market Watch; is the current spread above the ceiling; is there a high-impact news event nearby; is the session window open; and has the daily loss lock already triggered today. The decision log names which gate rejected each setup.
What balance should I start with?
It runs from $100, but $700 is where percentage-based risk sizing starts working properly and $1,000 is where our backtested figures were measured. Below roughly $700 the broker minimum lot of 0.01 forces about 10% risk per trade instead of the 1.5% you set, because the trade cannot be made smaller.
Can I change the settings?
Risk percentage, reward-to-risk and the daily limits are yours to set, and on a prop firm account you should. We would advise against re-enabling the disabled strategies — the exclusions are the single largest reason the shipped configuration performed as it did in testing.
How do I know it is working?
The decision log is the answer. It records every setup considered, whether it was taken or refused, and which gate refused it. A quiet day with a full log of rejections is the bot working correctly; a quiet day with an empty log means it is not connected.