Step 5 · about 10 minutes
Running an EA safely: first run and daily use
On a normal first day the EA may do nothing at all: it waits for a qualifying setup, and that patience is by design. Check the dashboard briefly each day, learn the difference between normal drawdown and genuine warning signs, and stay on demo for several weeks before you even consider a live account.
The EA is installed and running on your demo account, which means the setup work is done and a different skill begins: watching. Most of the damage beginners do to automated strategies comes not from the software but from the human fiddling with it, closing trades early, changing inputs mid-sequence, or switching it off and on at the worst moments. This final guide covers what normal looks like, what the dashboard is telling you, the few situations that genuinely call for intervention, and how to stop the EA safely when you choose to. It also sets the standard for the only optional step left: moving to a live account, later, if at all.
Expect a quiet first day and leave it alone
Do not be surprised if the EA opens nothing for hours or even days: the engine waits for a qualifying setup and refuses to trade without one. A silent EA with a green status icon and a clean Experts log is working correctly. Resist the urge to reattach it, change inputs or restart the terminal to make something happen, because none of that creates a setup; it only risks breaking a healthy installation.
mt5-quiet-chart-ea-waiting.webpScreenshot slot — see SHOT-LIST.mdMetaTrader 5 chart with the EA active in the corner and no open positions, showing a normal waiting state- EA status icon showing active
- Empty Trade tab, no positions yet
Learn to read the subscriber dashboard
Your Grit Markets dashboard shows four things at a glance. Equity is your account's live value including any open positions. Open positions lists what the EA currently holds. The recovery level shows how far into a sizing sequence the EA is, where level zero or one means the first, smallest position. Licence status confirms the EA can still validate against gritmarkets.com. A daily glance at these four takes under a minute.
grit-dashboard-equity-positions-overview.webpScreenshot slot — see SHOT-LIST.mdGrit Markets subscriber dashboard showing equity, open positions, recovery level and licence status panels- Equity figure updating live
- Current recovery level indicator
- Licence status showing valid
Distinguish normal drawdown from warning signs
Drawdown is the temporary dip in equity while positions are open at a loss, and with recovery-based sizing some drawdown is a routine part of every sequence, not an emergency. The genuine warning signs are direction and proximity: a recovery level climbing steadily towards your max recovery levels cap, or equity approaching the equity stop you set in the inputs. On demo, deliberately watch a deep sequence all the way through, because seeing one resolve, or hit the stop, teaches you more than any page of text.
dashboard-recovery-level-warning.webpScreenshot slot — see SHOT-LIST.mdDashboard chart showing recovery level rising towards its cap and equity nearing the equity stop line- Recovery level near the configured cap
- Equity approaching the equity stop line
- Normal shallow drawdown earlier for comparison
Set your intervention rule before you need it
The default rule is: do not intervene. Closing positions in the middle of a sequence realises losses that the sequence was designed to manage, and it is the single most common way users turn a temporary drawdown into a permanent one. The exception is absolute: if you look at the worst case, the equity stop being hit and the account losing what remains, and you no longer accept it, stop the EA. That decision is always valid, at any time, and needs no other justification.
worst-case-intervention-checklist.webpScreenshot slot — see SHOT-LIST.mdWritten intervention rule card stating do not interfere mid-sequence, but stop the EA if the worst case is no longer acceptable- Default rule: do not touch mid-sequence
- Override: stop if you no longer accept the worst case
Know the three ways to stop the EA, in order
Removing the EA from the chart, by right-clicking the chart, choosing Expert List and removing it, stops new decisions but leaves existing positions open and unmanaged. Turning off the Algo Trading toolbar button pauses every EA in the terminal at once, again leaving positions open, and is the fastest emergency brake. Closing positions manually from the Toolbox's Trade tab is the final step that actually realises the outcome, so do it deliberately, understanding that the loss or profit becomes permanent at that moment.
mt5-remove-expert-from-chart.webpScreenshot slot — see SHOT-LIST.mdMetaTrader 5 chart context menu showing Expert List for removal, with the Algo Trading button and Trade tab also marked- Expert List option to remove the EA
- Algo Trading button as the master pause
- Trade tab where positions are closed manually
Build a two-minute daily routine
Once a day, check four things: the EA status icon on the chart is active, the Experts and Journal tabs show no red errors, the dashboard's recovery level and equity look consistent with what you understood yesterday, and the licence status is valid. Note anything unusual in a simple log with the date; over weeks this becomes your own evidence of how the system behaves. That is the whole job. More frequent checking tends to invite fiddling, not safety.
daily-check-routine-checklist.webpScreenshot slot — see SHOT-LIST.mdFour-point daily checklist covering EA status, terminal logs, dashboard figures and licence validity- Chart status and logs
- Dashboard figures against yesterday
Move from demo to live only when you qualify yourself
Going live is optional and should follow weeks of demo observation, not days, including at least one deep drawdown watched without interference. When you do choose it, open the live account with the same broker settings from step one, fund it only with money you can afford to lose entirely, and configure the EA with the smallest available base lot regardless of account size. You can scale a setting up later; you cannot un-lose money. Completing this step on demo means you have finished the setup path.
live-account-smallest-base-lot-settings.webpScreenshot slot — see SHOT-LIST.mdEA inputs dialog on a live account showing the base lot set to the smallest available value- Base lot at the minimum value
- Equity stop set before the first live trade
Common problems.
My EA has not opened a trade for two days. Is it broken?
Probably not. The engine only trades when a qualifying setup appears, and quiet markets can mean days without one; silence with a green status icon and a clean Experts log is normal operation. Confirm the Algo Trading button is green, the chart corner shows the EA as active, and the Journal shows a live connection. If all three are healthy, the correct action is to wait. If any of them is not, the earlier guides in this path show the fix.
The EA is in drawdown. Should I close the trades myself?
Not because of drawdown alone. Temporary drawdown during a recovery sequence is how this style of strategy operates, and closing mid-sequence converts a managed, temporary loss into a permanent one. The two questions that matter are whether the recovery level is nearing your cap and whether equity is nearing your equity stop. Above all: if you no longer accept the worst case you originally signed up for, stopping the EA is always the right call, whatever the charts say.
What happens to my open trades if my computer or VPS goes offline?
The positions remain open at the broker, because trades live on the broker's server, not on your machine, but nothing manages them until MetaTrader 5 reconnects. Any stop or protective orders already placed on the server still work; decisions the EA would have made do not happen. Get the terminal back online promptly, check the Journal for the reconnection, and confirm the EA resumed. This scenario is the core argument for a VPS before going live, and a non-event on demo.
How long should I run the EA on demo before going live?
Weeks, not days, and ideally through at least one deep recovery sequence so you have felt a real drawdown with nothing at stake. There is no magic number, but a reasonable personal bar is: you can explain what the recovery level, base lot and equity stop each do, you have watched a sequence resolve without touching it, and the worst case no longer surprises you. Going live remains optional; some users run demo indefinitely, and that is a legitimate choice.
When I go live, how big should my base lot be?
Start at the smallest lot size your broker allows, whatever your account balance. The base lot sets the first position in every sequence, and because recovery sizing multiplies from it, a small increase at the base means a much larger worst case at the top of a sequence. Run live at the minimum until the system's behaviour matches what your demo weeks taught you, and only then consider a measured increase you have checked against your margin and equity stop.
Path complete
You can now run any MT5 expert advisor.
If the one you run is Grit Markets, you already understand exactly what it does — including the Martingale risk profile you saw disclosed before anything was for sale. Licensed monthly, cancel any time, demo it first.