Now that you have Telegram FX copier installed, let's talk about the best ways to set this up and use it.
Our first suggestion is to create a test channel in Telegram, and follow it in the copier. This is the fastest way to validate any settings, to make sure they work properly.
Please make sure you have your settings properly adjusted and tested before putting real money on any system!
We can start by double clicking on the EA to add it to a chart. If you get errors with license verification, visit this link. If you get a pop up window that says 'not configured for this account,' that means your MetaTrader account number is not added to our user portal. Please review the installation and setup video or visit this link.
The EA only needs to be added to one chart, and it will scan all available pairs from the chart.
If you get red message that says 'Show All Symbols In Market Watch' you can navigate here to solve it.
First, it helps to understand how Telegram signal copiers work. They use a form of software normally found in banking and medical technology called OCR. This software is extremely stable and has a high degree of accuracy. It works by scanning each message, looking for key terms. Once it sees the correct terms, it uses them to trigger an action.
Let's go through each section of the EA's inputs. Let's start at the top. This section allows you to configure custom settings for each channel that you copy. This also allows you to turn image recognition on or off. By default, it's turned on. You can read about how to configure this feature here. To find each channel's magic number, refer to this article.
This next section of the EA inputs determines how your stop losses will be handled.
Do you want to follow the SL from your signal providers? Or do you want to turn that off and set a custom SL here? This section allows you to set a custom SL if you wish, and lets you determine when it will be used. You can refer to this article for more detail.
And this next section does the exact same thing, except it does it for the target prices.
Do you want to follow the TP's from your signal providers? Or do you want to turn that off and set a custom TP here? This section allows you to set a custom TP if you wish, and lets you determine when it will be used. You can refer to this article for more detail.
This next section covers how your orders will be entered by the EA in MetaTrader.
By default, the EA will take every order at market price. However, the majority of signals we see from signal providers have a specific entry price. Because of this, we have the EA set up here to only take provider orders, and to ignore orders with no entry price.
Why would we do this?
Because taking provider orders at market increases the risk of order submission errors. Many brokers will not fill an order that has the TP or SL invalidated by the current market price. In addition, taking an order like this at market reduces the risk/reward ratio of your provider's trades. You can read more about this feature here.
Next, let's talk about the Money Management settings.
You can use this setting to determine your lot sizes, and what % of that lot size will be devoted to each TP. This is extremely important when determining lot sizes for certain symbols like Gold or Indexes, because many brokers have minimum sizing for these symbols. If your minimum sizing is too small, you will increase your risk of order rejection by the broker. This feature also offers a % of account risk setting, although we advise caution when using this--some brokers dislike the unusual lot sizes it creates, and they can reject orders because of it. This article covers this feature in more detail.
This feature allows you to set custom lot sizes for certain symbols.
This is handy for situations where your broker might require you to trade full size lots for symbols like indexes or crude oil, but you want to trade smaller positions for everything else. You can learn more about it here.
This next section handles your Risk Management settings.
You can learn more about this feature here. This is where you can adjust risk with trailing SL or moving the SL to BE. You can also tell the EA to close a % of each order in each step. Please note this feature is not supported by all brokers.
This next feature covers order modification from signal providers.
This section is broken into two parts. The first covers the activation of the EA's order modification.
You can activate or deactivate these according to your desired strategy. You can learn more about this here.
The second part covers the terms used to perform order modification.
In this section, you can configure the terms used to perform each type of modification for the order. Adjust this based on the terms your signal provider uses. You can also configure terms used to ignore any reply message the provider may send. Because reply messages look exactly like trades to the EA (they contain all the same terms), you want to screen out any messages that are only intended as updates. You can learn more about this feature here.
This next section covers your internal symbol mapping. It's extremely important to understand how it works.
First, let's talk about prefixes and suffixes. Some brokers use these for their symbols, and the top two fields are used for that purpose. Any prefix or suffix you enter will be applied globally to every trade the EA submits.
Second, let's talk about symbol mapping. All currency pairs are mapped internally. This internal currency mapping assumes your signal provider is using common symbol format, such as EURUSD or GBPJPY. If they do something unusual, like #EURUSD or EUR/USD, you will need to map that manually in the 'additional symbols' field.
Mineral symbols, indexes, and crypto are different. Because there is such a wide format variety from signal providers and brokers, those pairs must be mapped manually. For example, if your provider uses XAUUSD, you may get a 'symbol not found' error because our default value for gold is 'gold'. You can read more about symbol mapping here.
Finally, you'll notice a field called 'Strict Detection.' This allows you to change the EA's internal detection logic. This is helpful if your broker has made recent changes to their server's order submission logic. If you've started getting a 'symbol not found' or other unusual error for symbol pairs that worked in the past, try setting this to 'false' to correct the problem.
Next let's discuss the Advanced Settings in the EA.
This field is used for a few things. You'll notice the majority of it made up of terms that you can edit. Remember at the top of this tutorial, we mentioned how this software works? We've populated these fields with a number of commonly used terms, but there are a wide variety of use cases found on Telegram. You may need to adjust your terms, and if you do, we suggest putting the new addition at the front of the input field. Read more about this here.
One bit of helpful information--see the field labeled "Entry Price"? For provider orders, the EA likes to see the entry price on the same line as the action term (buy or sell) and the symbol. If the entry price is on a separate line, it wants to see the price labeled. Here are two examples:
If the entry price is not labeled with some type of term, the EA won't know that it's an entry.
The last section of inputs covers a number of things like maximum orders your EA will take, expiration duration for pending orders, and a number of other features covered here.
The final section in the EA deals with order submission logic.
What in the world is this for, and why would we add it? It may come as a surprise to you, but MetaTrader as a platform can have slight variations from broker to broker. We have been tracking order entry errors for the last 12 months, and recording these in a database. We have found that, during times of increased risk (like FOMC or Quarterly OpEx), submission requirements can change. This feature allows you to select from one of three different detection and submission methods, in case you suddenly begin experiencing order rejections.
Good luck, and contact our live chat if you have questions!