MT4 Messages

Some Important MT4 messages, what is it and what to do when you get these messages.

Waiting for Update
“Waiting for Update” is a common message with a new account or when switching between a mini and a standard accounts. There is an easy solution. Go to the Market Watch window, left click and hold down the mouse key on the pair you want to see in the chart and drag that pair onto the chart that says “Waiting for Update”.  Release the mouse key and this will automatically update the chart. 

Margin Calls
 Once you drop to or below 100% margin you cannot place any more trades. At 50% you go into a Margin call and your most detrimental trade or the first FIFO compliant trade (if applicable) is closed to bring you above 50%. If the first closed trade does not bring you above 50% the server will continue to close out trades until our account come up above 50%.

Trade Context is Busy
 You receive “Trade context is busy” when you try to process two or more orders at the same time. If you have placed a trade and do not wait until it processes completely and then try to place the same trade or a different trade, the commands go into a loop and you get “Tread context is busy”. The only solution is to close down the platform and restart it.

Maximum of 1,000 live trades at any one time
 Please be advised that you cannot have more than 1,000 live and pending trades in your account at any one time. If you try to place more than 1,000 trades you will get an error message.

I can’t place, modify or close my trade.
 There can be many reasons you cannot place, modify or close your trade.  Regardless of the reason you need to contact your broker immediately.

Bid – Ask
 All Forex quotes have two parts, the BID and the ASK.
The Bid is the price at which you (as the trader) will open a sell.
The Ask is the price at which you will open a buy.
The difference between the bid and the ask price is known as the spread.

MT4 charts are bid charts
 The current price shown on an MT4 chart is the bid price. When looking at a price bar or candle, you must add the spread to the high bid price to know what the high ask price would have been, or add the spread to the low bid price to know what the low ask would have been.

If you are in a sell (in at the Bid out at the Ask), you would not see the candle reach your stop loss if you are taken out of the trade. For example with a stop loss of 1.4580 on the EURUSD once the chart reached 1.4578 (2 pip spread) you would be taken out of the trade at 1.4580. Your take profit would not trigger until the ask price hits.  For example with a take profit of 1.4540 on the EURUSD once the chart reached 1.4538 (2 pip spread) you would be taken out of the trade at 1.4540. These examples are based on our spread shown under normal market conditions. Our spreads are not fixed and will fluctuate with news or other high / low volume conditions. If you are in a buy (in at the Ask and out at the Bid), you will see the bid price on the chart.

Margin
 Margin is the amount of necessary money needed to place/maintain a position.
Margin Level Percentage is calculated by taking:
Equity/Margin x 100 = Margin Level Percentage
Equity (your true Account Value) is your Balance +/- any open positions.
 In normally leveraged accounts:
•    At 100% you are not allowed to place any new trades.
•    At 50% you are subject to a margin call.
When a margin call occurs, all open positions are subject to liquidation at the prevailing market prices without prior notice to customer.

Cheers,
Mike PS