Trend Dashboard comes in two editions on the MT5 Market. The free edition is Trend Dashboard and the paid one is Trend Dashboard Pro. The short answer: start with the free edition. Pro adds four things you would notice, notifications when a row turns to enter now, a click that takes you from the table to the chart, a currency-strength row, and a different way of reading direction behind each cell, plus a few smaller ones the manual covers, such as a diagnostic log and a wider symbol search. This post sets the two side by side without a sales pitch: what both do, what only Pro does, who gets something out of Pro and who is perfectly well served by the free edition.
What both editions do
Both draw one table on a chart, a row for each symbol and a column for each timeframe. A cell shows the direction as an arrow and a colour, and the strength as a bar taken from ADX. By default a cell reads flat when ADX is below 18, whichever way the averages lean, and by default both read the last closed bar, so a cell does not change until a bar closes. Both then fold the columns of a row into one card. You pick your trading timeframe; the timeframes above it count as bias and it and the ones below as timing. The card says LONG or SHORT with enter now when the two agree, and a wait note when the bias is there but your own timeframe is flat or points the other way. When no higher timeframe shows a direction, the card says so and is marked as your timeframe alone, and it is not counted as enter now.
Both take their rows from a list of symbols you type or from the symbols selected in Market Watch (the first 100 by default, up to 300). Both split the rows into pages when the chart is not tall enough, and both still analyse every symbol, not only the ones on the page you see. Neither trades: there are no order functions in either, and both are readings of indicators, not forecasts.
Because the panel and the advice rule are the same, Pro does not draw a better table. The free edition reads direction from a fast and a slow EMA (20 and 50 by default) behind the ADX gate. Pro adds things around that table, and it changes how direction is read, as described next. Pro also switches the M30 column on by default; the free edition can show it too.
What only Pro adds
First, notifications. The free edition sends none. Pro raises one when a row turns to enter now from any other state, and, if you switch it on, when the bias of a row flips direction. A popup in the terminal and a sound are on by default. A push message to the MetaTrader app on your phone and an e-mail are available but off by default. Pro checks every symbol, including those on other pages and while the panel is collapsed, so the row does not have to be in view. The first full pass after the indicator starts, and a click on a timeframe chip, only set a starting point and raise nothing. A list on the panel keeps this session's notifications and what happened to each route, and a button mutes them. Push and e-mail are paced to stay inside the MQL5 sending limit. A notification says only that a row changed its reading. It says nothing about what price will do next, and it works only while the terminal is running with the indicator on a chart.
Second, click to switch. A click on a symbol name or an advice card switches the chart to that symbol on your trading timeframe, and a click on a cell switches it to that symbol and that column's timeframe. An option opens a new chart instead, with a template of yours if you name one. Switching the chart reloads the indicator on it, which does not change the rows but does set the notification starting point again. In the free edition a click on a row does nothing, so you change the symbol yourself.
Third, a currency-strength row under the table. It shows the major currencies that appear in your symbols, strongest first, each scored from the trading-timeframe cells of the pairs that contain it. It reads the first six letters of a symbol name as two currency codes, so gold quoted as XAUUSD counts toward the dollar while a symbol named GOLD is left out. It summarises cells you can already see.
Fourth, direction by vote. Pro can read a cell from up to five conditions: the fast EMA above the slow one, the fast EMA rising, +DI above -DI, the MACD main line above its signal line, and, off by default, the close above the slow EMA. Four are on by default, and a cell turns up or down only when one side has more votes than the other; a tie reads flat, and the ADX gate still applies. I have not measured whether the vote reads trends better than two averages, so I do not claim that it does. It reads them differently, and each condition can be switched off (if you switch off all five, the EMA cross is used).
Who gets something out of Pro
Pro is worth a look if you follow many symbols while you work on another chart and want to be told when a row lines up, if you are often away from the screen and want a message on your phone, or if you spend the day moving from the table to charts and a click would save you steps. It is also for you if you want the currency row or the vote behind each cell.
Who does not need it
The free edition is enough if you keep the table in view anyway, if you look at it now and then and open the charts yourself, or if what you want is the table, the top-down card and rows from Market Watch. If you notice that you keep the table open only to catch the moment a row turns to enter now, or that you keep missing it, that is the day to look at Pro. Until then there is no reason to.
A note about the Pro demo
The Market demo of a paid product runs only in the Strategy Tester, and the tester changes what Pro shows. In version 1.44, the current one as I write this, the table is drawn in the tester, but it is redrawn once per new bar instead of every two seconds. Push and e-mail, if you switch them on, are marked tester in the notification list and are not sent. The code notes that the tester does not deliver timer or chart events, so I would not expect click to switch or the panel buttons to work there, and I have not checked what the tester does with the popup and the sound. So the demo can show you the table, which the free edition shows as well, and it cannot show you most of what Pro adds. The free edition on a live chart is the better preview.
My suggestion is simple: put the free edition on a chart, use it for a while, and decide from what you actually miss. If nothing is missing, the free edition is all you need.
