FTMO news manager - User manual

This blog post provides relevant information on setting up FTMO news manager, including detailed explanations about its input parameters.

How to use this Expert advisor

This Expert works while attached on a single chart. It is not intended to be attached on multiple charts and it does not need to, even if you trade multiple instruments.

Keep in mind that the chart needs to be active for the Expert to work. If you trade Forex, Indices or Commodities, attaching the Expert to any Forex pair should be perfectly fine, as the Forex market is open 24/5 which covers most markets. In case you trade Cryptocurrencies, be aware that on weekends the Expert will only work if attached to a Cryptocurrency's chart.

The Add-on indicator

The Add-on indicator is required to support the features that prevent other Expert advisors from working during a certain time (aka "switch AutoTrading off"). It can be attached on the same chart as the Expert. The Add-on can be found on the bottom of this page or by following this link.

The Add-on became necessary to support features that require DLL imports. Unfortunately, I can't integrate these directly into FTMO news manager as programs requiring DLL imports are not allowed in the Market. However, allowing DLL imports is the only way to get proper access to the AutoTrading button, thus preventing other Expert advisors from working during a certain time.

It is important to understand that FTMO news manager can work without the Add-on, which means that you only need to download it if you wish to use these additional features. Once downloaded, you need to put it inside the Indicators folder:

You may need to restart your Metatrader platform in order for the indicator to appear in the Indicators tab of the Navigator:

Make sure DLL imports are allowed in the Expert advisors tab under Tools > Options:

Preferably, attach both the Expert and the Add-on indicator on the same chart. The Add-on has no parameters. Now let's have a look at FTMO news manager's parameters.

The input parameters

The input parameters are organized in modules: General settings, Technical settings, Upcoming news reminders, Daily loss limit, Weekend close and Set up news hereafter.

The first three modules include features to help deal with FTMO news restrictions. Restricted news are released every Sunday on the FTMO website. You can find them in two different places: on the main site (https://ftmo.com/en/calendar) and in the client section (https://trader.ftmo.com/economic-calendar). The last module is where you input the restricted events, so let's begin with it:

Set up news hereafter

You can define up to 15 different news events. You don't need to input all the restricted events that appear on the FTMO website, but only those that affect the instruments you trade.

Date and time: Input date and time of the event.

Instrument: Select the instrument that will be affected by the event.

As an example, you would select AUD for the following restricted event:

It is also possible to select "All instruments" in case you prefer the Expert to act on all of your trades, regardless of whether the instrument is affected by the event or not:

General settings

Here you define how you want the EA to act during the news events that you have set up. Notice that there are three categories: before news, after news and during news window. To understand what these categories mean, imagine that you define a news window (you are able to do this in the Technical settings module) of 3 minutes. Before news then means 3 minutes before the event, after news means 3 minutes after the event and during news window means the whole window 3 minutes before until 3 minutes after the event.

Close open trades: Closes all open trades affected by the restricted event at the beginning of the news window.

Delete pending orders: Deletes all pending orders affected by the restricted event at the beginning of the news window.

Reopen trades: All the trades that were closed at the beginning of the news window are reopened at the end of the news window. If no suboption is selected, the trades are reopened at the current market price with the original volume, stop loss and take profit price, comment, and magic number. If current price is beyond the original stop loss or take profit price, the trade is not opened.

-> adjust lotsize: This suboption forces the Expert to adjust volume according to the new distance between the original stop loss and current price, so that the new trade is opened with the same risk. If the original trade did not have a stop loss, volume is not adjusted.

-> don't reopen if R:R worse: If this suboption is activated, the Expert will only reopen trades whose new R:R is the same or better as the original trade. For example, if the original trade was a buy trade, this means that if current price is above the original entry price, the R:R is worse and so the trade is not opened.

Replace pending orders: All the pending orders that were deleted at the beginning of the news window are replaced at the end of the news window. The orders are placed at the same entry price, with the original volume, stop loss and take profit price, comment, magic number and expiration. The Expert will only place a pending order if the criteria for the order are still met. For example, if the original pending order was a buy stop order, this means that current price needs to be below the original entry price for the order to be placed.

Freeze SL/TP: Deletes stop loss and take profit values at the beginning of the news window, and places them back at the end of the news window. This option prevents trades from being closed by stop loss or take profit during a restricted news event, thus avoiding violation of FTMO contract terms. If at the end of the news window, current price is beyond the trade's original stop loss or take profit price, the trade is closed immediately.

To illustrate what this feature does, let's suppose there is EUR news at 11:45, and we have defined a news window of 3 minutes. At 11:40, our trades look like this:

We have two EUR trades (eurjpy and eurusd), and we want them to stay open through the news event. At the same time, if price was to go beyond our stop loss or take profit on one of our trades during the event, we don't want the trade to be closed until after the news window, to stay in line with FTMO terms. At 11:42, this happens:

The situation stays like this until the end of the news window, at 11:48:

Stop loss and take profit values are back. At this moment, none of the trades is beyond their original stop loss or take profit price, so both trades stay open. Otherwise they would have been closed.

Switch AutoTrading off (Add-on required): Prevents other expert advisors from working during the whole news window. AutoTrading resumes at the end of the news window.

Technical settings

News window (in minutes): This parameter defines the news window in minutes. Let's say the input is 3 and news time is set to 10:30, then the news window starts at 10:27 and ends at 10:33. "Close open trades" and "Delete pending orders" will activate at 10:27 ("before news"). "Reopen trades" and "Replace pending orders" will happen at 10:33 ("after news"). "Freeze SL/TP" and "Switch AutoTrading off" will be active during the whole news window from 10:27 until 10:33.

News time corresponds to: Choose between "Local computer time" and "Broker time".

This option tells the Expert what time is to be considered on the news events that you have set up. If you choose "Local computer time", you need to introduce the news events in your timezone (or your VPS timezone if you are not using your own computer). In case you choose "Broker time", the Expert will consider the server time. Please note that server time is not GMT+1 (or GMT+2 in summer). Although FTMO claims to be on the CE(S)T timezone (which is GMT+1/GMT+2) and bases Daily loss calculations on that timezone, their server time is 1 hour ahead: GMT+2 (GMT+3 in summer). You can easily confirm server time by using the cross-hair and checking the time of the last printed candle, preferably on the 1 minute chart and when the chart is active:

Upcoming news reminders

Enable alerts: Enables pop-up alerts as reminders for upcoming news.

Enable push notifications: Enables push notifications to be sent to your phone. For this option to work, push notifications need to be enabled in the Notifications tab under Tools > Options.

Enable e-mail: Enables e-mail messages to be sent to your e-mail address. For this option to work, e-mail messages need to be enabled in the E-mail tab under Tools > Options.