Manual Trade Pad for MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester

Related: Partial Close Multi TP Manager for MetaTrader 5 - another powerful expert for MetaTrader 5 traders.

Manual Trade Pad for MT5

This is a chart-based manual trading panel designed for traders who want a simple and efficient way to execute and manage trades directly from the MetaTrader 5 chart.

Also recommended: Strategy Tester Report Parser for Deals and Trades - similar expert with strong performance on MetaTrader 5.

The same tool can be used in two environments:

Live Market
- For manual trade execution and position management.

Strategy Tester
- For manual strategy testing and historical trading practice.

The panel uses standard MQL5 functionality and does not require external libraries or additional installations.

Main Features

Market Order Execution

Open market positions directly from the panel:

BUY

SELL

The tool uses the current market price and automatically calculates the corresponding Stop Loss and Take Profit levels according to the selected settings.

Position Sizing

Two position-sizing modes are available.

Fixed Lot

Enter the desired trading volume directly.

Example:

0.10 lots

Risk Percentage

Specify the percentage of account balance to risk on the trade.

Example:

1.0%

The tool estimates the required volume from the selected Stop Loss distance and the symbol's tick size and tick value information.

The resulting volume is normalized according to the broker's minimum, maximum and volume-step requirements.

Stop Loss

A Stop Loss distance can be specified in points.

The tool also checks the symbol's minimum stop distance before sending the order.

This helps avoid sending orders with Stop Loss levels that are closer to the market than allowed by the trading server.

Risk / Reward Take Profit

The panel can calculate Take Profit automatically using a Risk/Reward ratio.

For example:

Stop Loss = 300 points Risk/Reward = 2.0

The corresponding Take Profit is calculated automatically.

Set the Risk/Reward value to 0 when no automatic Take Profit is required.

Position Management

Opening a trade is only one part of the workflow. The panel also provides several basic position-management operations.

Break-Even

Move managed positions to their open price with an optional point offset.

For BUY positions, the Stop Loss can be moved above the entry price.

For SELL positions, the Stop Loss can be moved below the entry price.

The tool checks the broker's minimum stop-distance requirements before modifying the position.

Existing Take Profit values are preserved.

Partial Close

The panel provides a quick partial-close function.

The default operation attempts to close approximately half of the selected position volume while respecting the broker's volume-step and minimum-volume requirements.

This can be useful when securing part of a position while leaving the remainder open.

Directional Position Closing

Positions can be closed by direction:

Close BUY positions

Close SELL positions

Close all managed positions

This is useful when several positions are open and only one direction needs to be closed.

Live Trading

When attached to a normal MT5 chart, the panel can be used as a manual trading interface.

A typical workflow is:

Select the desired position-sizing mode.

Enter the lot size or risk percentage.

Set the Stop Loss distance.

Set the desired Risk/Reward ratio.

Press BUY or SELL.

Manage the resulting position using Break-Even, Partial Close or Close functions.

The panel is intended as a trading utility rather than a signal generator.

It does not analyze the market or generate automatic trading signals.

The trading decision remains with the user.

Strategy Tester

The same tool can also be used in the
MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester
for manual historical testing.

This allows traders to move through historical market data and manually execute trades using the same interface used for live trading.

Possible applications include:

Manual strategy testing

Discretionary trading practice

Entry and exit testing

Risk-management experiments

Trade-management testing

Learning and practicing trading setups

This approach can be useful when a trading idea is discretionary and cannot easily be expressed as a fully automated Expert Advisor.

Position Identification

The tool does not manage every position on the account.

A position is considered managed only when it belongs to:

the current chart symbol;

the configured Magic Number.

This allows the panel to coexist with other Expert Advisors and positions on the account without intentionally modifying positions outside its management scope.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Several frequently used actions can also be triggered from the keyboard:

Key

Action

B

Open BUY

S

Open SELL

E

Move managed positions to Break-Even

C

Close all managed positions

Keyboard shortcuts can be useful when performing rapid manual tests in the Strategy Tester or when working with the panel on a live chart.

Panel Interface

The interface is implemented using native MetaTrader 5 chart objects.

No third-party GUI framework is required.

The panel includes:

Trading buttons

Position-sizing controls

Stop Loss and Risk/Reward inputs

Account information

Position information

Status messages

The panel is designed to remain lightweight and easy to understand.

Input Parameters

Magic Number

Unique identifier used to distinguish positions managed by this tool. Positions belonging to other Magic Numbers are ignored.

Initial Sizing Mode

Selects the default position-sizing method:

Fixed Lot

Risk Percentage

Default Fixed Lot

Default trading volume used when Fixed Lot mode is selected.

Default Risk Percentage

Default percentage of account balance used for risk-based position sizing.

Default Stop Loss

Default Stop Loss distance in points.

Default Risk/Reward

Default Risk/Reward ratio used to calculate Take Profit. Set to 0 to disable automatic Take Profit.

Break-Even Offset

Optional offset in points applied when moving a position to Break-Even.

Maximum Deviation

Maximum allowed price deviation used when sending or closing trades.

Panel X / Y

Horizontal and vertical position of the panel on the chart, measured in pixels.

Requirements

MetaTrader 5

A trading account supported by MetaTrader 5

No external DLLs

No third-party libraries

No additional indicators required

The tool is designed as a standalone source-code example for the MQL5 Code Base.

Important Notes

This program is a manual trading and trade-management utility.

It does not provide trading signals, investment recommendations or guarantees of trading results.

Risk-based position sizing is an estimation based on the symbol's tick size, tick value and Stop Loss distance. Actual trading costs and execution conditions may affect the final result.

Always verify the behavior of the panel with your broker and test your intended workflow in the Strategy Tester or on a demo account before using it with real funds.

Source Code

The source code is intentionally provided as an MQL5 Code Base project so that developers can study, modify and extend the implementation.

The program uses the standard CTrade class and native MetaTrader 5 chart objects.

It can therefore also serve as an example of implementing a lightweight trading interface without relying on external GUI libraries.

Summary

Manual Trade Pad for MT5 provides a simple interface for:

Manual BUY/SELL execution

Fixed-lot position sizing

Risk-percentage position sizing

Stop Loss management

Risk/Reward based Take Profit

Break-Even

Partial Close

Directional position closing

Live manual trading

Manual Strategy Tester operation

Keyboard shortcuts

The goal is simple: provide the essential manual trading and position-management controls directly on the chart, using the same interface for both live trading and historical testing.

You may also like: Programmatically Attach Expert Advisors with Custom Inputs to MetaTrader 5 Charts - excellent alternative for expert users on MetaTrader 5.

#property copyright "RobotFX"
#property link "https://robotfx.org"
#property version   "1.00"
#property description "This code is educational. Feel free to use, modify and upgrade as you wish. Visit ROBOTFX.ORG for professional trading tools"
#include <Trade/Trade.mqh>
enum ENUM_SIZE_MODE
  {
   SIZE_FIXED_LOT    = 0,
   SIZE_RISK_PERCENT = 1
  };

.......

• This tool is provided for educational and testing purposes only.
• Past performance does not guarantee future results.
• Trading involves substantial risk of loss. Use on a demo account first.
• Results may vary depending on market conditions, broker, and settings.
• We recommend thorough backtesting and forward testing before using with real funds.