This is the install guide for the free demo version of Trade Copier Console. The demo is the complete product: same code, same settings, same interface, nothing switched off and no time limit. The one difference from the purchased version is the account type — the demo runs on demo and contest accounts only. On a live account it stops during initialization and says so on the chart.
That restriction is the point of the test. A copier cannot be judged in the strategy tester: there is nobody to copy from there, so the product only renders its interface. The single way to find out whether it suits you is to put it on two demo accounts in two terminals and watch it find the other terminal, match your broker's symbol names, and deliver a trade with a latency you can measure.
The basic link: the role on the source; on the receiver, the master account number and the sizing method.
Files and links
Both platform builds are attached to this article:
- (Demo MT5) — TradeCopierConsoleDemo.ex5 for MetaTrader 5
- (Demo MT4) — TradeCopierConsoleMT4Demo.ex4 for MetaTrader 4
A copier works as a pair: one terminal sends its trades, the other receives them. So the file goes into both terminals — the right one for each platform. The bridge runs in every direction: 5→5, 4→4, 4→5 and 5→4.
The full versions, with no account restriction, are on the Market:
The panel, every setting and the ready-made profiles are described in the (User Manual). This article covers the install and the first run only.
What you need
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Two terminals on one machine — a PC or a VPS | The copier talks through the MetaTrader shared folder, not over the network. That is a platform limit: network transport would need a DLL, and the Market does not allow them. |
| Both terminals under the same Windows user and not in portable mode | A portable terminal has a shared folder of its own, so the other terminal simply will not see it. |
| Two demo accounts | One terminal holds one account, so you need two terminal installations: from different brokers, or two copies of the same terminal in different folders. |
| Algo trading allowed in both terminals | Without it the receiver cannot open a single copy. |
A hedging receiver is preferable. Netting is supported, but it has its own rules — they are spelled out in the manual and on the panel itself.
Step 1. Put the file into the Experts folder
- In the terminal open File → Open Data Folder.
- Go to MQL5 → Experts (in MetaTrader 4 — MQL4 → Experts).
- Copy the downloaded file there: .ex5 for MT5, .ex4 for MT4.
- Back in the terminal, right-click Expert Advisors in the Navigator and choose Refresh. TradeCopierConsoleDemo appears in the list (in MT4 — TradeCopierConsoleMT4Demo).
There are no sources to compile — this is a ready expert advisor. Repeat the same in the second terminal.
Step 2. The source terminal
The source is the account whose trades you copy. The expert advisor goes onto one chart of your choice: the symbol and the timeframe do not matter, the copier works with the whole account.
- Drag the expert advisor from the Navigator onto a chart of the demo account.
- In the properties dialog, Common tab, tick Allow Algo Trading and press OK.
- Make sure the Algo Trading button (AutoTrading in MT4) in the toolbar is green.
Exactly one setting is needed:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Account role | Source (send my trades) |
Nothing else on the source is used. The source only publishes its positions and never trades — under any settings, after any error.
[SCREENSHOT: 01-source.png]
The left node of the source panel is its own account, server and position count. The right one is how many receivers are listening: until the receiver is set up that is zero and the RECEIVERS table below is empty. You will need the account number from the left node in the next step.
Step 3. The receiver terminal
The receiver is the account the copies land on. The expert advisor goes onto one chart the same way, but here there are three settings:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Account role | Receiver (copy trades to this account) |
| Master account numbers (comma separated) | the demo account number of the source, for example 50934471 |
| Lot sizing method | Risk a fixed percent of my equity |
| Risk per copy, % of my equity | 1.0 |
There can be several sources — list the numbers separated by commas, up to eight: 50934471, 61200318.
The sizing method is not an accident. The copier carries money, not lots: gold can have a contract size of 10 at your broker against 100 at the source's, and "the same lot" would mean ten times the risk. With this setting every copy risks one percent of your equity, whatever lot the source trades.
Step 4. Check that the link is up
A second after the start the receiver panel shows a settled link — and this is the state you can leave it working in. Five things to look at:
| What | What it means |
|---|---|
| The two nodes and the line between them | The source account number on the left, yours on the right, the link between them carrying pulses. Pulses running means snapshots are arriving. |
| The LIVE status | Green means the source is talking. Grey and master silent mean it stopped — and your copies are held, not closed. |
| The SIZING line | How the copy volume is calculated. It also shows when the method had to fall back to proportional because the source had no stop. |
| The SPEED line | poll is how often the copier looks at the snapshot, bus is how long the trade travelled, fill is how long your broker thought about the order. The third number is usually the largest, and it is not the copier. |
| The Mirror table | The source's positions matched line by line against your copies. Empty until there are trades. |
Now open a trade on the source. It appears in Mirror, and a fraction of a second later on your account.
Now switch to the source terminal: your receiver has appeared in its RECEIVERS table — account, server, how many copies out of how many it holds, and at what lag. Both ends of the link are visible without changing a setting.
If the copy did not open, the reason stands where the copy would have been: symbol not found here with the list of names it tried, spread 42 > 30 pts, not enough margin (need 412, free 180). The copier never refuses silently.
This is also the moment to test the one thing that matters most. Close the source terminal completely. The copies stay open, the status turns grey, and Mirror says master silent. Absence of data is never read as absence of positions — a copy is closed only when a fresh snapshot from a live source says the position is gone.
What the demo actually limits
Nothing but the account type. The check runs at startup, before the expert advisor touches the shared folder. On a demo or contest account the product runs in full. On a live account initialization stops, the chart keeps the line "This build runs on DEMO accounts only, and this is a real account", the same reason goes into the Experts journal, and nothing is left behind.
No time limit. No disabled features. No cap on trades, symbols or sources. No watermark on the panel. The demo and the purchased version speak the same protocol, so you can run the demo on the receiver while the source is already the paid build, and the other way round.
If something goes wrong
It did not start, and the chart says DEMO accounts only. The account is live. The full version from the Market is the one that runs there.
Already running on … for this account. The expert advisor is already on another chart of the same account. Exactly one instance per account — the extra chart can be closed. This is how the two most common copier complaints are prevented outright: "one trade copied several times" and "copies close by themselves".
The panel is alive but the source is not there. Check the number in Master account numbers against the one in the source panel's header. If it matches and the source is running, the two terminals are writing into different shared folders. The shared folder is %APPDATA%\MetaQuotes\Terminal\Common\Files, and a running source puts TCC\m_<its account number>.bin there. No file means that terminal runs in portable mode or under a different Windows user; copying the file by hand solves nothing, the terminal has to be reinstalled properly.
The source is visible but no copies appear. Read the Mirror line — the refusal is written there. No line at all means the trade was filtered out. The usual reason is Copy master positions already open at start: it is off by default, so positions opened before the copier started are not copied. Open a new trade on the source.
A sad smiley on the chart in MT4. Auto trading is off — no expert advisor in that terminal will do anything.
Nothing is copied in the strategy tester. By design: there is nobody to copy from. The panel still runs so you can look at the product.
What next
The demo gives full access to everything, so walk through the settings with the (User Manual): eight sizing methods, filters by symbol, magic number and comment, pending orders, break-even and trailing on the receiver side, daily limits and the prop-account profile, and Self copier mode for multiplying your own trades.
When you decide to run it on a live account, the full version is on the Market: (Trade Copier Console — MT5) or (Trade Copier Console — MT4). It installs straight from the terminal through Market → Purchased → Install, and the licence is tied to your MQL5 account. Settings are entered again, but the copy map and the journal belong to the account number rather than to the build: keep the same Magic number for copied trades and the full version picks up the copies the demo opened and goes on managing them.
