Order Watchdog: Account Anomaly Alerts for MT5

Related: VPS Toolkit: Secure Order Sending and Restart-Safe State for Expert Advisors - another powerful expert for MetaTrader 5 traders.

Order Watchdog

Also recommended: Fx Craft Example EA: Range Breakout with Pending Orders - similar expert with strong performance on MetaTrader 5.

is a read-only Expert Advisor designed to monitor your entire MT5 account for anomalies. It operates on any live or demo chart without executing trades, focusing solely on reading positions, orders, and deal history to send timely alerts.

This tool is ideal for users running one or more Expert Advisors on a PC or VPS who need immediate notification of unexpected trade activity, such as those arising from connection interruptions, system restarts, or broker-related issues.

Alert Conditions

Unknown Magic Numbers: Flags positions or pending orders with magic numbers not present in your specified list. Manual trades can be exempted.

Duplicate Positions: Detects multiple positions for the same magic number, symbol, and direction (e.g., two buy orders after a reconnection).

Missing Stop Loss: Alerts if a position remains without a Stop Loss after a defined grace period.

Stop Outs: Notifies when positions are closed by the broker due to margin stop outs.

Stop Loss Slippage: Identifies Stop Loss orders that executed at a price significantly worse than the specified limit.

Downtime Activity: Upon reactivation, it reviews the deal history to report any unknown-magic positions opened or stop outs that occurred while the Watchdog was inactive.

Quick Setup

Attach the EA to any chart; it monitors all symbols automatically.

Specify your Expert Advisors' magic numbers in the InpMagics input, accepting comma-separated values and ranges (e.g., 12345, 500000-500063).

Optionally, configure InpMaxPerMagic (e.g., 1) and enable InpRequireSL.

Alerts are delivered via MT5 mobile app push notifications, a CSV log file, and optionally through Telegram.

Design Principles

Each detected issue triggers a single alert that persists until resolved. Alerts from a single scan are consolidated into one message to prevent alert storms and avoid MT5 push notification limits.

Alerted issues and their last seen timestamps are stored in a state file, ensuring that restarts do not re-report old alerts or forget downtime periods.

Scans are performed only when the terminal is connected. The downtime check initiates only after a stable connection of 15 seconds.

Invalid inputs will prevent the EA from starting. This includes improperly formatted magic number lists, non-existent symbols (e.g., incorrect suffix), or checks requiring magic numbers when none are provided.

The InpRunWhere parameter allows flexible deployment: run on any device, exclusively on an MQL5 VPS, or only on your local PC.

Telegram integration is optional and timer-initiated. Ensure WebRequest is enabled in Tools > Options > Expert Advisors > Allow WebRequest.

Strategy Tester Functionality

In the Strategy Tester, the InpTesterDemo input generates sample trades (including an unknown magic number, a duplicate without SL) and closes them to demonstrate alert functionality. This feature is exclusive to the Strategy Tester. A built-in self-test (InpRunSelfTest) verifies input parsing and alert logic.

Testing and Validation

Compiled without errors or warnings. Self-test completed successfully with 35 checks passed.

Strategy Tester runs on EURUSD and XAUUSD confirmed unknown magic, duplicate, and no-SL alerts, each appearing once per issue without repetition.

Live demo account (hedging, EURUSD) testing confirmed: an unknown-magic position was reported immediately, two positions with the same magic triggered a single DUPLICATE alert, and both positions raised NO_SL alerts after the grace period.

Post-restart behavior confirmed no false re-reporting. An unknown-magic position opened during Watchdog downtime was reported approximately 20 seconds after reconnection (OFFLINE_EVENTS). Closing test positions did not generate false alerts.

Push notifications fail gracefully with a single clear message in the Experts log (error 4517) if a MetaQuotes ID is not configured, avoiding repeated alerts.

Further confirmation is pending for: push delivery to mobile, Telegram alerts, SL slippage, and real stop-out scenarios. Please report any discrepancies or issues.

This tool is available free of charge. Feedback and suggestions are welcome in the comments section.

You may also like: Pending Panel MT5: One-Click Pending Orders with OCO Functionality - 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>

input group "What is yours"
input string InpMagics         = "";
input bool   InpManualIsOK     = true;
input string InpSymbols        = "";

.......

• 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.