FAQ

A discipline tool for MetaTrader 5. You set your trading rules in a calm moment; TradeBouncer holds you to them in a bad one.

A trade that breaks one of your rules is closed right after it opens, and a stop-loss moved further away is put back. A panel over MetaTrader tells you which rule it was. TradeBouncer gives no trading advice and makes no trading decisions.

No. MetaTrader does not let any add-on block a trade in advance, so the trade opens first and TradeBouncer closes it straight afterwards.

That means a rejected trade does exist for a moment at your broker, and its spread, commission and any slippage are yours. What TradeBouncer prevents is the position staying open, not the order being filled.

Never. It only closes positions that break your rules and puts widened stop-losses back.

Six: max risk per trade, stop-loss required, no stop-loss widening, max trades per day, a cooldown after a loss, and max losing trades per day.

Each one can be switched off on its own. There is also a warn-only mode, in which rule breaks are reported but not closed. Details on each rule are in The rules.

No. It holds you to the limits you set. It does not know whether a trade is good, and it cannot make anyone profitable.

With enough deliberate effort, yes. TradeBouncer runs on your own computer, and a computer belongs to whoever sits at it.

It is built as friction, not as a wall: getting past it takes several calm, deliberate steps, and an impulse rarely survives several calm, deliberate steps. Local software that claims to be impossible to switch off is claiming something that does not exist.

MetaTrader 5 on Windows (64-bit). Not MetaTrader 4, not macOS or Linux, and there is no mobile app.

Only while your Windows PC is running with TradeBouncer on it. It watches your account through MetaTrader on that PC, not the device you trade from.

• PC on, MetaTrader open: trades from your phone are judged by your rules like any other.
• PC on, MetaTrader closed: the background guard closes every new position on the account, wherever it came from, until the Bouncer is back on a chart.
• PC off: nothing is enforced.

It works through MetaTrader itself, so it is not tied to a broker, and the rules apply to everything you trade on the account.

What a stop would cost is calculated by MetaTrader, in your account currency, so different symbol names for the same market (gold, for example) make no difference. If you trade something unusual, try it on a demo account first.

Yes. Demo and live accounts work the same way.

Rules belong to one account. Rules you set on a demo account do not carry over to your live account; you set those separately.

Run the installer, then enter your licence key in the Settings window (Start menu: Tradebouncer Settings). No administrator rights are needed.

The installer closes MetaTrader politely before it changes anything and puts the Bouncer on your charts, including charts you open later. TradeBouncer then starts by itself every time you sign in to Windows.

No. Never.

TradeBouncer works with the logins already saved in your MetaTrader. It needs MetaTrader to remember your account, so log in there once before you install.

It adds the Bouncer to your charts and switches off MetaTrader's option that disables automated trading whenever you change account.

It also keeps its own hidden copy of MetaTrader, logged in to your account, so it keeps working when you switch Algo Trading off or close MetaTrader. Uninstalling removes the Bouncer from your charts and puts that option back.

TradeBouncer is quiet while everything is in order. It speaks up when something is wrong.

A panel stays on screen over MetaTrader while the Bouncer is off the chart, while Algo Trading is switched off, while no rules are set, or when your subscription has ended. To see it work, set your rules on a demo account and open a trade without a stop-loss: it is closed and the Bouncer tells you why.

As a fixed amount in your account currency: what you would lose if the trade hit its stop-loss. It is checked when the trade opens.

It is not a percentage of your balance. Because it is measured to the stop price, a gap or slippage at the stop can still cost more than your limit. The risk check needs a stop-loss, so keep "stop-loss required" on if you rely on it.

Every position you open. It counts when it opens, not when it closes.

• Orders that are rejected or cancelled never count.
• A pending order counts when it is filled, not when you place it.
• Trades the Bouncer closes for breaking a rule do not count.
• Adding to a position counts as a new trade.

A close below zero, measured on price alone: commission and swap are not included.

A trade that closes at exactly zero is not a loss. Closing a losing position in several parts counts each losing part as a loss. Deposits and withdrawals are ignored.

No, not currently. You can limit the risk of each trade in money, and the number of losing trades per day.

TradeBouncer does not track open losses, equity, balance or drawdown, and profits do not change how many losses you have left.

Every new position is closed until your broker's midnight. Positions that are already open are left alone.

You can still close them, tighten their stops and change their take-profits. Pending orders are not deleted; if one fills, it is closed like any other new trade.

After every losing trade, new positions are closed for the number of minutes you chose. Set it to 0 to switch it off.

A countdown shows how long is left. You can still manage and close open positions. The cooldown ends at a fixed time, so it keeps running while MetaTrader or your PC is off, and it is still there after a restart.

Moving it further from your entry than it already was, or removing it altogether.

The stop you open the trade with becomes the limit. A widened stop is put back to that limit; your take-profit is not touched.

Yes, any time. But once tightened, it cannot go back out.

The limit follows the tightest stop you have set. Moving it back to where it started counts as widening and is reverted.

Yes, freely. TradeBouncer does not watch take-profits.

TradeBouncer tells you and keeps trying every second. Until the broker accepts, the stop stays where you moved it.

Brokers can refuse a stop that is too close to the current price. Note too that a widened stop exists at your broker for up to about a second before it is put back.

At midnight on your broker's server clock. You cannot choose a different time.

Your own time zone does not matter, so travelling changes nothing. At the day change the counters reset; positions held overnight stay open, and their stop-loss limit stays in place.

Every save locks your rules until your broker's midnight, and that includes making them stricter. Changing them sooner takes a paid Mayday reset code.

Before your rules lock, you see them read back to you as plain sentences and confirm them. A change applies about a second after you save, to every trade opened from then on.

Not directly. A code unlocks your rules, not a cooldown that is already running.

If you raise your losing-trades limit with a code, a day closed by that limit opens again at once. Lowering the cooldown does not shorten one that has already started.

Yes. Cooldowns, day locks and the day's counters are kept through restarts of MetaTrader and of your PC.

No. Trading is allowed again automatically.

If it is still on another chart, nothing changes: that one takes over. If it was the last one, the background guard closes every new position until the Bouncer is back.

The guard keeps enforcing through its own copy of MetaTrader, whose switch stays on. A panel tells you Algo Trading is off.

While your PC runs, the guard closes every new position on the account, from any device, until MetaTrader is back with the Bouncer on a chart.

Nothing is enforced while the PC is off. When it comes back, TradeBouncer starts again at sign-in, with the day's counters and locks as they were.

Positions opened while the PC was off are left as they are, and losses taken in that time are not counted.

Closing a trade needs a connection to your broker. TradeBouncer keeps trying and acts as soon as the connection is back.

Not for enforcing your rules. That happens entirely on your PC. Our server is only asked about your licence, once a day.

If it cannot be reached, nothing changes for about two weeks. After that there is a three-day grace period, shown on screen, before the subscription is treated as ended.

Yes. TradeBouncer writes log files to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Tradebouncer, and MetaTrader's own Experts log records every rule break. The logs stay on your PC.

Yes. Every MetaTrader account has its own rules, its own counters and its own locks. Switching between accounts keeps all of them.

There is no shared limit across accounts. The background guard watches one account at a time: the one you are using.

No. Each PC has its own installation, rules and counters, so you set your rules on each one.

They can run side by side, but TradeBouncer judges every position on the account, not only the ones you place by hand.

Trades from a bot or a copier count towards your limits and are closed if they break a rule. If you run automated strategies on the same account, set your limits with that in mind.

These are set out in our Terms and Refund policy.

TradeBouncer stops enforcing. It never closes a position or blocks a trade because a subscription ended.

Your rules stay on your PC exactly as you left them, and a panel says the subscription has ended.

Updates are included. They are never installed behind your back: you run the new installer yourself, and your rules and settings are kept.

Your licence key, a code derived from your PC so the licence can be checked, and the IP address of that daily check. Nothing about your trades.

Your rules, account number, broker, positions and results stay on your PC. There is no analytics or tracking, in the software or on this website. Details are in our Privacy policy.

English.

Not currently. You can change how the panels look with skins, but not what they say.

Through our contact form. Tell us your TradeBouncer version and what you saw; the log files in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Tradebouncer help us most.